Derek Luke (left) and Tim Robbins (right) in 'Catch A Fire'. - Contributed NEW YORK (AP):
Catch a Fire takes place in apartheid-era South Africa, but identifying the good guys and bad guys isn't always as simple as black and white.
Director Phillip Noycecontinues his recent streak of historical dramas (Rabbit-Proof Fence, The Quiet American) by exploring the true story of Patrick Chamusso (Derek Luke), an oil refinery foreman and married father of two young girls who was wrongly accused of sabotaging his workplace in 1980.
But Noyce applies his longtime action-movie skills here as well. The richly photographed, fast-paced Catch a Fire is tense and constantly keeps you guessing, even until the very end.
Although he had been cautious his whole life and reluctant to take a stand politically, which propelled him up the ranks at work, Chamusso is arrested after an explosion at the refinery. Any poor man with black skin could have been a suspect, but he had access and he can't explain where he was in the middle of the night when the attack occurred.
Torture-happy sadist
Tim Robbins co-stars as Nic Vos, the police colonel investigating the case, and gives the character enough shading to make you wonder is he a torture-happy sadist or a decent man with dubious methods? He's married with two daughters of his own (and he insists they learn how to fire a gun for protection, a skill that will come in handy later). But he's also fond of tormenting his captives in ways that are both sly and strident.
Similarly, Luke (Antwone Fisher) is totally believable as a kind, hardworking family man who's also capable of secrets and lies. Bonnie Henna co-stars as Chamusso's dutiful but conflicted wife, Precious, a former beauty queen, who's constantly suspicious of where her husband is and whom he's with - for good reason, we learn. Chamusso has a son from his involvement with another woman; it's unclear whether the affair occurred before or after the married Precious, but he still finds ways to sneak around behind his wife's back.
Eventually, after being beaten and kept from his family for months, he is set free, but he chooses to leave home again of his own volition to fight apartheid as a member of the African National Congress (ANC).
Bomb-toting
His transformation into bomb-toting rebel seems to come out of nowhere and happens a bit too abruptly. But, it also introduces us to his fellow fighters, who train in Angola and Mozambique, and go by code names such as Betsy and Pete My Baby. Regardless of where they came from or what they call themselves, when their leader Obadi (the charismatic Tumishu K. Masha) lines them up and repeatedly shouts at them "are you ready to die?" they shout back in unison, "Yes, commander!"
(The screenplay comes from Shawn Slovo, daughter of Joe Slovo and Ruth First, who were white anti-apartheid activists in South Africa.)
And this is what makes Catch A Fire, a film set a quarter-century ago, so relevant today. Attacks are being carried out all over the world in the name of freedom or terrorism, depending on perspective. Torture is happening all over the world, whether the people being held truly are responsible for the acts in which they're accused.
Like last year's Paradise Now, which showed us Israeli-Palestinian violence through the eyes of two suicide bombers, Catch a Fire is confident enough in itself to depict the battle from all sides.
