Off his game

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Eastwood (from left), Freeman and Damon on Invictus set. (WARNER BROS. PICTURES)

Clint Eastwood aspires to put lumps in throats with the sports drama Invictus.

But the director, who has always been most at home in the milieu of violence-ridden America (Unforgiven, Gran Torino), fails to knock socks off with the story of how Nelson Mandela rallied South Africa behind its rugby team in 1995.

Eastwood seeks to inspire. But at his most yeoman-like, he is not himself inspired.

That doesn't mean this is not a worthwhile story to hear, even if we do happen to live in a country where we prefer watching people brutalize each other on ice.

Employing a thoroughly American storytelling strategy, Eastwood and screenwriter Anthony Peckham contrive to reveal the brilliant, complex South African president Mandela (Morgan Freeman) through the well-worn device of the underdog sports movie.

The underdogs here are the national rugby team the Springboks, captained by the earnest François Pienaar (Matt Damon).

Upon assuming the presidency, not long after being imprisoned for 27 years by the country's brutal apartheid regime, Mandela is in charge of a country where white South Africans, including Pienaar's own father, fear a violent black uprising.

The politically savvy Mandela himself notices black South Africans have no love for their own country's (mostly white) rugby team during a match with England. "All the whites cheer for South Africa," he says. "All the blacks cheer for England."

He sees a means of forgiveness and reconciliation by not only supporting the team, but by protecting them from the clean-sweep policies of some of his African National Congress confederates.

Mandela practises what he preaches in his own office, employing white security agents from the previous government to protect him alongside his own retinue of black agents. (The tensions between the two groups neatly mirrors the tensions of the South African racial divide, and is not a bad little movie unto itself.)

Mandela makes a point of acquainting himself with Pienaar. Utilizing William Ernest Henley's titular poem, whose title means "unconquered" in Latin ("I thank whatever gods may be / For my unconquerable soul... I am the master of my fate / I am the captain of my soul"), he convinces the dazzled athlete that winning is a way of answering a higher calling, demonstrating to the world that the new South Africa deserves its place on the world stage. (The country was long denied a slot in the world leagues due to apartheid.)

"I think he wants us to win the World Cup," the stunned Pienaar tells his wife.

Damon does solid work as Pienaar, who is more at home in a scrum than in the President's office. But this is ultimately Freeman's movie, and the actor is at his best, bringing his considerable charm and gravitas to bear on the two sides of Nelson Mandela: the Christ-like conciliator preaching peace and forgiveness, and the canny politician who knows you can win more hearts with a handshake than you can twisting an arm.

Freeman brings his A game.

It's a pity Eastwood, in his most workmanlike mode, didn't bring his.

randall.king@freepress.mb.ca

OTHER VOICES

SELECTED EXCERPTS FROM REVIEWS OF INVICTUS.

THE MOVIE, DIRECTED BY CLINT EASTWOOD, HAS ITS CORNY MOMENTS, FOR SURE, BUT IT'S ALSO POWERFUL, FULL OF CONVICTION AND ONE OF THE MOST INSPIRING MOVIES OF THE YEAR.

-- A.O. SCOTT, NEW YORK TIMES

WHO'D HAVE THOUGHT THAT OLD DIRTY HARRY WOULD, WITH LETTERS FROM IWO JIMA AND INVICTUS, BECOME AMERICA'S PRIME DIRECTOR OF INTERNATIONAL TRAUMA AND TRIUMPH?

-- RICHARD CORLISS, TIME MAGAZINE

MORGAN FREEMAN RENDERS AN UNDERSTATED CHARISMATIC PERFORMANCE, IMMENSELY CONTRIBUTING TO EASTWOOD'S FACTUAL INSPIRATIONAL TALE, WHICH, AMONG OTHER MERITS, SERVES AS A TRIBUTE TO THE POWERFUL ROLE OF SPORTS AND POETRY IN BROADER, DIVISIVE POLITICS.

-- EMANUEL LEVY, EMANUELLEVY.COM

INSPIRATIONAL ON THE FACE OF IT, CLINT EASTWOOD'S FILM HAS A PREDICTABLE TRAJECTORY, BUT EVERY SCENE BRIMS WITH SURPRISING DETAILS THAT ACCUMULATE INTO A RICH FABRIC OF HISTORY, CULTURAL IMPRESSIONS AND EMOTION.

-- TODD MCCARTHY, VARIETY

EASTWOOD HAS CRAFTED SOMETHING THAT WORKS BOTH AS A SPORTS DRAMA AND AS AN EXAMINATION OF THE BIRTH PAINS OF THE RACIALLY UNIFIED SOUTH AFRICA.

-- JAMES BERARDINELLI, REELVIEWS

THE LAPSES FADE IN THE FACE OF SUCH A SOUL-STIRRING STORY -- ONE THAT WOULD BE HARD TO BELIEVE IF IT WERE FICTION.

-- DAVID ANSEN, NEWSWEEK

-- COMPILED BY

CANWEST NEWS SERVICE

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition December 11, 2009 D5