Invictus (2009)

Secret Movie Confession: I've never seen a movie directed by Clint Eastwood (hell, I've only seen two he's acted in). This is a source of frequent frustration for my associate, so I'm trying to correct it. It seemed easiest to start with his newest film, Invictus, which draws from John Carlin's book to tell the story of how Nelson Mandela (Morgan Freeman) sought to unite post-apartheid South Africa through national rugby.

While dealing with unemployment, poverty, and police brutality, Mandela conspires to push the South African team the Springboks into the world championship. They've never been very good, and continue to represent white oppression for much of the black community, who usually root for anyone playing against them. Mandela meets with their captain, Francois Pienaar (Matt Damon), and convinces him to motivate the players and push them to become national role models. As the team becomes better and better, the country comes together in support. Meanwhile, the new administration experiences interior friction and the president's failing health.

Ok so now I've seen an Eastwood film, though I'm led to believe it's not up to par with many of his others. That's good to hear since I wasn't exactly blown away by it. While I think it's an interesting idea to view the struggles of post-apartheid South Africa through the framework of Mandela's interest in rugby, I feel like surrounding issues weren't dealt with enough to present a well-rounded story. Mandela kept ducking out of important-looking meetings to hear the rugby score, and it was played to comical effect, but I was like wait, he's got more important things to deal with! Still, it's a fairly engaging plot that flicks back and forth between Mandela, Pienaar, and the presidential bodyguards, who are constantly meeting new security challenges.

The performances are quite good, with Morgan Freeman exuding the necessary charm, charisma, and conviction to carry the film; his characterization reminded me a lot of Elwood P Dowd from Harvey. I really liked a lot of the supporting cast as well, many of whom are South African or British and unknown to me. I think Damon is the weak link here. He's not awful, just incredibly bland and flat. And I don't think he felt confident with the accent. His role is secondary to Freeman so it's not a huge deal, but the film is noticeably less interesting whenever Pienaar has a scene.

As a director Eastwood seems fine, but I didn't get a sense of any kind of distinguishing mark or style, apart from the awful and overabundant music choices (seriously, was the whiny white guy music juxtaposed with the fun African music supposed to remind us how lame white people are? or did someone actually think that these songs sounded good?). Then again, I've been told Invictus isn't particularly Clint Eastwoody. I think he and screenwriter Anthony Peckham did a nice job fusing various subplots into a cohesive narrative, and taking a culturally specific story and making it accessible to new audiences. It's a bit overlong, with way too much rugby (I guess it's an ok game, but I'm not watching this movie to see grunting dudes run at each other for extended periods of time), but otherwise quite enjoyable. The character of Nelson Mandela is explored in an indirect, nuanced way, and the numerous supporting cast members add some humor and excitement. I promise I'll watch more Eastwood movies soon.

4/5