Interesting and slightly inspiring but it could have been so much more

Rating: 7/10 (12 April 2010)

My dad wanted to see this yesterday but I wasn't too keen on seeing a film but I went anyway and sufficed to say I enjoyed myself. Invictus tells the story of Nelson Mandella as president of Africa who joins forces with the captain of the South African rugby team Francois Pienaar to ask them to win the world cup and help unite the country in the awake of the apartheid.
This is a very good film. Morgan Freeman as Mandella was terrific. He played the part perfectly with the touch of charm, heart, intellect and thoughtfulness. Matt Damon was okay as Francois but I have to say it could have been played better with another actor in his place. Clint Eastwood directs once again with flair capturing the essence of the story and focusing it firmly on one event as the apartheid was more than that, which is where I feel he went slightly wrong. It would have been nice to see more of an exploration about the rise of Mandella and the wider impact of the apartheid instead of just about the world cup.
It was interesting and inspiring to watch though I didn't feel the inspiration until the very end. It wasn't amazing as there were parts where I was getting a bit bored but it does pick up. What did let this down slightly was Matt Damon's satisfactory but nothing more performance and lack of the powerful tone of the situation and more exploration of the wider implications of the apartheid and Mandella's biography and more inspiration surrounding it. Eastwood has failed in this sense and instead of turning into the masterpiece it could have been like Changeling, it's just very good film, which for me is not normal in his vocabulary and it is easily forgettable unlike Changeling. But it would be a shame to put this down too much as this is still well worth seeing even if it's a bit on the long side.