'Catch a Fire'

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MOVIE REVIEW
'Catch a Fire'
Derek Luke does justice to tale of wronged man.
By Kenneth Turan
Times Staff Writer

October 27, 2006

"Catch a Fire" sounds like an awfully familiar story, and in some
ways it is. Movies on the nightmare that was South Africa under the
apartheid system and the heroic efforts made to resist it are hardly
new, and it is difficult to avoid a sight-unseen dismissal of this
latest example as too familiar and too late. Which would be a
mistake.

What that analysis doesn't count on, though this story is way more
than twice told, is that it has never been told by Derek Luke. The
young American actor gives such an intense, passionate performance as
South African Patrick Chamusso that he just about dares you not to be
involved with the tale he is telling.

Also true is that stories of South African resistance, like stories
about the Holocaust, are so various and so simultaneously disturbing
and heartening that they bring a built-in viewing interest with them.

Yes, as written by Shawn Slovo, some elements of Chamusso's story
feel facile, even schematic. But despite the occasional blip, when
Luke's performance is joined to the confident direction of veteran
Phillip Noyce ("Rabbit-Proof Fence," "The Quiet American"),
"Catch a
Fire" does not fail to ignite.

More than that, this story set in South Africa a quarter of a century
in the past turns out to have pointed parallels to the world
situation today. The use and value of questionable interrogation
techniques, the arrogance of those in power and how those elements
combine to politicize innocents and create opposition where none
existed before are all touched on here.

After a brief prologue set in 1991, "Catch a Fire" spends most of its
time in 1980, when Patrick was a cheerful young South African who
gave the political situation in his country not so much as a second
thought.

Happily married to the beautiful Precious (Bonnie Henna), with two
young daughters and his mother to support, Patrick is a classic
go-along-to-get-along guy, fully engaged by his family, his love of
soccer and his job as a foreman at the critical Secunda oil refinery.

In fact, Patrick is shown having such a good time at a wedding that
it's clear something bad is going to happen. Driving home, he is
stopped at a police roadblock set up after a bombing and needlessly
humiliated in front of his family.

Intercut with scenes of Patrick's life and work are glimpses of the
public and private Col. Nic Vos (Tim Robbins), a member of the Police
Security Branch's anti-terrorism squad. The colonel, who considers
his country and his family to be in immediate danger from the Moscow
communists he is sure are running the African National Congress, is
both proud of his job and quite good at it.

In movie terms it's inevitable that the paths of the these two men
will cross, and that is what happens when a bomb goes off at the
Secunda refinery and Patrick is arrested as the terrorist who did the
deed.

"Catch a Fire" has taken pains to show that Patrick is innocent and
also to reveal the glitch in his personal life that compromises his
alibi. The colonel, a specialist in mind games who treats suspects
like lab animals to be manipulated, is sure he's got his man and acts
accordingly.

Robbins does as well as anyone could playing the equivalent of the
sympathetic Nazi, but despite obvious attempts to humanize him, the
colonel's emotional range as a man firmly on the wrong side of
history is finally too narrow to allow for a fully realized
character.

Derek Luke, on the other hand, best known for his Independent Spirit
Award-winning lead performance in "Antwone Fisher," brings a
maturity, gravity and even fury to his richest role to date.

It is difficult to say whether it was intentional or not, but to see
how the techniques of state-sanctioned torture turn this innocent
into a revolutionary activist surely has a message for those in power
today.

Adding this to Forest Whitaker's marvelous performance as Idi Amin in
"The Last King of Scotland," fall 2006 has turned into a season of
African American actors doing great work in African roles. We should
all be grateful it has.

kenneth.turan at latimes.com

'Catch a Fire'

MPAA rating: PG-13 for thematic material involving torture and abuse,
violence and brief language.

A Focus Features release. Director Phillip Noyce. Writer Shawn Slovo.
Producers Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Anthony Minghella, Robyn Slovo.
Cinematography Ron Fortunato, Garry Phillips. Editor Jill Bilcock.

Running time: 1 hour, 42 minutes. In general release.