Don't believe the hype!

Rating: 2/10 (14 December 2009)

"Invictus" is the Disney version of apartheid -- shallow, simplistic, and very disappointing. There is little suspense, and worse, next to no acknowledgment of South Africa's heroic efforts to face down its past. It's all rugby and Mandela all the time. The screenplay, with its "Attaboy" dialogue, reads like a 1940s baseball movie. Morgan Freeman's Mandela is stirring but Matt Damon's character is a cipher. And everyone else is just a face in the crowd, including the beautiful country of South Africa. This feel-good approach will no doubt play well in the multi-plexes, but Eastwood's fans deserve more nuance and more thought.