Dripping in Good Intentions; Lacking Anything That Would Actually Make It Entertaining

Rating: 3/10 (4 August 2010)

An example of what happens when good intentions kill a movie dead.
Clint Eastwood's "Invictus" is tasteful, reverent and serious, all qualities that would make for a great funeral eulogy but which do not necessarily make for riveting filmmaking. Morgan Freeman plays South African president Nelson Mandela capably and actually manages to avoid turning him into a wax-work version of the real-life figure, a trap another actor might have fallen into. But Eastwood's film is thuddingly boring, not translating one ounce of the inspirational vigor this story should.
The final half hour or so of the film depicts a famous rugby match that saw the South African team win the world cup, a victory in which Mandela had the foresight to see an opportunity to unite South Africans in a moment of national pride. But the game itself is edited poorly, simply showing random bouts of action interspersed with reaction shots from spectators, so that we never know where we are in the game, what any one play means, or even that the game is close to being over until it actually is. And Eastwood should have his rights to use slow motion revoked forever -- the device is used so relentlessly during the film's climax that it almost becomes a parody.
Matt Damon tackles a South African accent as captain of the rugby team. Damon is a fine actor, but how he managed to get nominated for an Academy Award for this performance is beyond me.
"Invictus" has all the excitement of a high school civics textbook.
Grade: D