A socially-relevant and meaningful film from South Africa which supplies plenty of reasons to feel optimistic about humanity's prospects.
Comment
03/28/07
Cape Of Good Hope (2005)
68 %
Reviews Counted: 31 Fresh: 21 Rotten:10 Average Rating: 6.4/10
Consensus:
This little South African film takes a different approach -- putting politics in the background and ordinary people front and center. Overall, it's a heartwarming effort.
Runtime: 1 hr 47 mins
Synopsis: The new South Africa is revealed in Cape of Good Hope, a colorful and vibrant mosaic of love and hope. A profoundly optimistic film, Cape of Good Hope is, in the words of writer-director Mark Bamford, "a movie about people just trying to live. It's not about black and white, it's not about... [More]
Genre: Dramas
Starring: Debbie Brown, Eriq Ebouaney, Nthati Moshesh, Morne Visser
Director: Mark Bamford
Reviews
Mostly manages to feel authentic and uplifting, putting a human face on a complex colonial culture.
03/01/07
Cape of Good Hope is a film about people we want so very much to love, people who keep us watching - and keep us smiling.
08/14/06
... there's a temptation to call Cape a South African Crash, but it lacks both complexity and compromised characters.
01/24/06
There's so much Altmanesque activity in the film that even if some storylines temporarily don't work, others keep making up for them.
01/13/06
No matter how heavy-handed the sentimentality gets, the film's intentions seem sincere.
01/05/06
Around the margins of the story are characters whose behavior is unique.
01/05/06
A post-apartheid film in which the characters are less concerned with politics than with matters of the heart.
01/05/06
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12/18/05
Despite its shortcomings, Cape of Good Hope is a hopeful piece of humanism that is difficult to begrudge too much.
12/18/05
The stories are interlinked effectively, and the film strikes an upbeat note yet does not address racism and discrimination. For all its affection toward its characters, however, the film is too long and too slack.
12/16/05
Top Critic
With its warm heart and charming characters, Good Hope is a good choice.
12/16/05
Grounded in the easy rhythms of daily life, this charming little film shows unexpected grit.
12/15/05
The film's strengths are offset by flaws including an excessiveness cutesiness (there are far too many shots of adorable puppies), a tendency toward sentimental cliches and too many jarring shifts in tone.
12/13/05
Top Critic
A South African movie that departs from the political strife of Apartheid - there are still issues of race and class, but they're approached in a more roundabout, accessible way that isn't so in your face.
12/03/05
It's hopeful but not saccharine, ambitious but only occasionally broad. And the fact that it's set in a country still grappling with the legacy of apartheid makes its good will all the more relevant.
12/02/05
I like the spirit of it and some of the performances but [there are] too many cutesy whimsical moments, too many coincidences that just kind of neatly tied things together.
11/21/05
The picture isn't devoid of substance, but it doesn't allow itself to get mired in message either. It conveys its themes via likable, relatable protagonists.
11/16/05
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