Rugby ended racism in South Africa?

Rating: 2/10 (7 February 2010)

The film made up of one half showing the problems Mandela faced during his presidency and how he tried to unite the county after apartheid and one half showing the actual rugby games.
The scenes with Mandela (Freeman) were very well directed and the portrayal of Mandela was close to flawless (as expected from Morgan Freeman). However the focus was on the rugby and it seemed Mandela spent more time watching the games and talking to the players than doing anything else. You are left with a strong feeling of not having enough insight into Mandela's presidency.
This isn't helped by the rugby scenes being filmed akin to a live televised sporting event. You see the same angles ad nauseam and the camera is generally so wide you have no idea what is happening. The director also seems to refuse to use a shallow depth of field at any point - you have no idea what you should be focusing on even on close up angles.
It can be argued all this is intentional as you're not supposed to focus on the game, but should rather focus on the crowd and see just how much impact the game had in uniting the country. However this premise was hugely overplayed in my opinion and the movie makes it look like rugby single-handedly ended racism in South Africa.
With over an hour of rugby footage, it's hard to justify just how poorly the action was filmed and with an overplayed premise, even Morgan Freeman's fantastic acting can't save this one - 2/10.