Disappointing

Rating: 4/10 (5 August 2010)

The story of how Nelson Mandela, after becoming the leader of South Africa following the demise of the apartheid regime, tried to heal the racially divided country by, among other things, supporting the Springboks, the South African rugby team, who were supported by the white minority and hated by blacks, during the 1995 World Cup (the Springboks managed to win). Matt Damon does a nice turn as Francois Pienaar, the captain of the Springbooks, who coming like the rest of his teammates from an Afrikaner home hostile to the new regime slowly warms up to Mandela. Morgan Freeman is almost insufferable as the new president, showing him almost as a holy fool, a naive, always smiling, quasi imbecile. The real Mandela, who was (for a good cause) the leader of Africa's main armed faction for more than thirty years, is probably made of sterner stuff. You don't have to be a cynic to find this movie trite and corny, full of cringing dialogue that is almost painful to listen. Even the rugby scenes shown here are uninspiring. A disappointment.