Stories of Apartheid deserve to be heard, but that doesn't automatically make this a good film
In My Country (2005)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:80
Fresh:18
Rotten:62
Average Rating:4.8/10
Consensus: A well-intentioned but melodramatic look at post-Apartheid South Africa.
Runtime: 1 hr 44 mins
Genre: Dramas
Synopsis: Langston Whitfield (Samuel L. Jackson) is a Washington Post journalist. His editor provocatively sends him to South Africa to cover the Truth and Reconciliation Commission hearings, in which the... Langston Whitfield (Samuel L. Jackson) is a Washington Post journalist. His editor provocatively sends him to South Africa to cover the Truth and Reconciliation Commission hearings, in which the perpetrators of murder and torture on both sides during the Apartheid era are invited to come forward and confront their victims. By telling the unvarnished truth and expressing contrition, they may be granted amnesty. Can the deep wounds of Apartheid be healed through reconciliation? Langston is deeply sceptical. He tracks down Col. De Jager, the most notorious torturer in the SA Police and tries to penetrate the mind of a monster, an experience that obliges him to confront his own demons. Anna Malan (Juliette Binoche), is an Afrikaans poet who is covering the hearings for radio. As a white South African she is shattered by the accounts of the cruelty and depravity committed by her fellow countrymen. Anna and Langston must both question their sense of identity. Where do they each belong? How responsible are they for what is done in the name of their respective countries? The moving testimony of the victims affects them deeply. In different ways they are both estranged from their families, and their shared experience draws them ever closer to each other. It is a story charting the unfathomable depths of human cruelty and the redeeming power of forgiveness and love. -- © Sony Pictures Classics [More]
Starring: Juliette Binoche, Samuel L. Jackson, Brendan Gleeson, Menzi "Ngubs" Ngubane
Starring: Juliette Binoche, Samuel L. Jackson, Brendan Gleeson, Menzi "Ngubs" Ngubane
Director: John Boorman
Director: John Boorman
Screenwriter: Ann Peacock
Producer: Robert Chartoff, Mike Medavoy, Kieran Corrigan
Studio: Sony Pictures Classics
Reviews for In My Country
It's always a bit sad when a good director takes aim at an important target and misses.
Jackson appears uncomfortable in his role, the scenes leading up to his romantic involvement are strangely unconvincing and the arc of both characters' emotional and political growth is choppy and contrived.
[Seems] less interested in South Africa and more interested in whether the journalists ... will suffer nervous breakdowns or run into the desert for a torrid love affair.
...[a] well-meaning but uneven and sanctimonious melodrama...the film cannot withstand its manipulative and melancholy lapses
The film, an international co-production about the aftermath of South African apartheid, has won peace awards and comes with a thumbs up from Nelson Mandela himself, none of which make its contrivances easier to swallow.
Ugly secrets unfold in staccato succession with the intent to incite but inspiring only groans.
Very nearly destroying the picture is an affair between Jackson and Binoche's characters. Any scene of intimacy evoked titters from the audience.
Noble intentions, some fantastic photography some good performances but I have to give it thumbs down because of all the melodrama.
Diminished by a contrived, uninvolving love story what could have been emotionally compelling instead is plodding, with a feel good Hollywood ending that degrades the premise
In My Country is a film with great ideas - and important ones. Frustratingly, they are undermined by Hollywood plot contrivances, generally poor writing and at least one case of woeful miscasting.
See In My Country anyway, because it's doubtful we'll get another movie too soon that raises the issue of vengeance versus forgiveness -- and endorses the latter in the name of a nation's spiritual well-being.
The picture hums with a falsely optimistic Kumbaya vibe, such that its mildness is almost an affront.
The actors can handle the heavy lifting, but this doesn't give you much more than a well-done cable documentary.
A disaster: well-meaning, but hopelessly trite, obvious, and condescending toward the very process it intends to celebrate.
It's essential viewing for anyone interested in the state of post-Apartheid South Africa.
Boorman's politics and own truth-telling aims are admirable, as they were in his underrated 1995 film, Beyond Rangoon.
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