Most movie remakes possess all the quality of carnival toys.
But then again most remakes don't star James Earl Jones and Richard Harris. Based on Alan Paton's celebrated novel, the tale resonates even more fully today that apartheid has been abolished and the racial harmony that Paton wrote about 50 years ago is no longer merely fiction. What he finds instead is sorrow. His sister has become a prostitute, his brother an agnostic and his son a thief. Handled by less talented personnel, the film could easily have slid into preachy melodrama.