Dallas Morning News
Chris Vognar of the Dallas Morning News reviews Cape of Good Hope:
"Cape earns its good hope, and in the end, it's less a feel-good movie than merely a good movie." B+
Movie Review
By CHRIS VOGNAR / The Dallas Morning News
Sprawling ensemble movies are common these days. Good ones are not. It's a tricky task, juggling and merging all those story lines and characters in a way that keeps you interested in everyone without straining credulity or forgoing emotional honesty.
Cape of Good Hope pulls it off with room to spare. Comparisons will leap to mind for American moviegoers – Robert Altman, 1991's Grand Canyon, John Sayles' Sunshine State. But this story of a diverse cross-section of contemporary Cape Town residents is very much of its own time and place. It's hopeful but not saccharine, ambitious but only occasionally broad. And the fact that it's set in a country still grappling with the legacy of apartheid makes its good will all the more relevant.
Writer and director Mark Bamford sets a dozen or so characters in motion around a few major themes: reconciliation and forgiveness, mothers and daughters, desires and obligations. You could draw up a chart linking the subplots and players, but Cape's dramatic clarity is one of its strong suits. It has an interlocking, novelistic structure that stays simple without pandering.
It also has a high number of vivid performances that draw you in as the film progresses. At the top of the list is Eriq Ebouaney, a French-African with a serene, commanding presence and kind, penetrating eyes. He plays Jean Claude, a Congolese astronomer biding his time working at a Cape Town animal shelter as he awaits word on his political asylum status in the West.
The apple of Jean Claude's eye is Lindiwe (Nthati Moshesh), a widowed single mother whose browbeating mom wants her to marry for money. Jean Claude's boss at the shelter is Kate (Debbie Brown), one of those women who insists on dating jerks even when a kindly veterinarian (Morne Visser) is right in front of her.
Cape of Good Hope doesn't offer much in the way of visual dazzle, though Mr. Bamford has a nice way of setting scenes with a lengthy shot before moving to a more micro level with character interaction. More important, he gives the viewer a feel for modern South Africa, where overt prejudice has given way to subsurface tension and, in the best cases, genuine cooperation. There's a little bit of white liberal guilt thrown into the mix, but it rarely sticks out, and it never puts a damper on the story's dramatic integrity.
That integrity is built largely on a foundation of small details. A young shanty resident with a dog named Tupac. A domestic who misses a college exam when her boss springs an unexpected shift on her. The way Kate sells a potential adopter on a particular dog. (Cape is definitely a dog lover's movie.)
These specks of information are the signs of a film that takes its time; this quality is also evident in the ways the characters are allowed to grow through the story.
Only near the end does Cape Town rush, which isn't a surprise – it's easier to build a vast world of characters than to make it stop spinning. But the tidy conclusion is the only false step for a film that wears its underlying optimism in its title. Cape earns its good hope, and in the end, it's less a feel-good movie than merely a good movie.
Published in The Dallas Morning News: 12.02.05
By CHRIS VOGNAR / The Dallas Morning News
Sprawling ensemble movies are common these days. Good ones are not. It's a tricky task, juggling and merging all those story lines and characters in a way that keeps you interested in everyone without straining credulity or forgoing emotional honesty.
Cape of Good Hope pulls it off with room to spare. Comparisons will leap to mind for American moviegoers – Robert Altman, 1991's Grand Canyon, John Sayles' Sunshine State. But this story of a diverse cross-section of contemporary Cape Town residents is very much of its own time and place. It's hopeful but not saccharine, ambitious but only occasionally broad. And the fact that it's set in a country still grappling with the legacy of apartheid makes its good will all the more relevant.
Writer and director Mark Bamford sets a dozen or so characters in motion around a few major themes: reconciliation and forgiveness, mothers and daughters, desires and obligations. You could draw up a chart linking the subplots and players, but Cape's dramatic clarity is one of its strong suits. It has an interlocking, novelistic structure that stays simple without pandering.
It also has a high number of vivid performances that draw you in as the film progresses. At the top of the list is Eriq Ebouaney, a French-African with a serene, commanding presence and kind, penetrating eyes. He plays Jean Claude, a Congolese astronomer biding his time working at a Cape Town animal shelter as he awaits word on his political asylum status in the West.
The apple of Jean Claude's eye is Lindiwe (Nthati Moshesh), a widowed single mother whose browbeating mom wants her to marry for money. Jean Claude's boss at the shelter is Kate (Debbie Brown), one of those women who insists on dating jerks even when a kindly veterinarian (Morne Visser) is right in front of her.
Cape of Good Hope doesn't offer much in the way of visual dazzle, though Mr. Bamford has a nice way of setting scenes with a lengthy shot before moving to a more micro level with character interaction. More important, he gives the viewer a feel for modern South Africa, where overt prejudice has given way to subsurface tension and, in the best cases, genuine cooperation. There's a little bit of white liberal guilt thrown into the mix, but it rarely sticks out, and it never puts a damper on the story's dramatic integrity.
That integrity is built largely on a foundation of small details. A young shanty resident with a dog named Tupac. A domestic who misses a college exam when her boss springs an unexpected shift on her. The way Kate sells a potential adopter on a particular dog. (Cape is definitely a dog lover's movie.)
These specks of information are the signs of a film that takes its time; this quality is also evident in the ways the characters are allowed to grow through the story.
Only near the end does Cape Town rush, which isn't a surprise – it's easier to build a vast world of characters than to make it stop spinning. But the tidy conclusion is the only false step for a film that wears its underlying optimism in its title. Cape earns its good hope, and in the end, it's less a feel-good movie than merely a good movie.
Published in The Dallas Morning News: 12.02.05
Posted: Thu - December 1, 2005 at 11:54 PM
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Published On: Dec 01, 2005 11:59 PM
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Published On: Dec 01, 2005 11:59 PM