Not one of Eastwood's best

Rating: 6/10 (20 January 2010)

It will be interesting to see if this movie has universal appeal, particularly in USA where Rugby is confined to colleges mostly on the west coast. The thread of the story of course was more about Mandela's wish to find a way for uniting the country through sport and this came across quite well along with the scepticism on both sides of the political divide and the mistrust of the new administration. Personally I thought the sequences of the Rugby went on a little long although they were reasonably well done. The question remains though, would the film have been made had the result of the game been different? Character development was not strong apart from the Mandela character.Matt Damon was fairly convincing but the film, for me at least, failed to reach the heights of other recent Eastwood films. I am sure the film will have a large audience in South Africa and to a lesser degree other Rugby playing nations.