The little paragraph that tries to
capture a film in a film festival brochure is a fascinating thing: trying to
stand out amongst scores more paragraphs all trying to get you to part with
your money and see their film. If you are a small Irish film I would imagine it
is even more difficult when you are up against some stellar sounding
international fare. I had read about The
Good Man in the JDIFF brochure and was intrigued. One quick look on the
internet and I picked it out as one of my films to see. Its central idea of how
two different stories seemingly unconnected, thousands of miles apart, could be
brought together successfully, intrigued me.
I am sad to say that The Good Man does not succeed in its goals.
The juxtaposition of a successful business man in Belfast
(Aidan Gillen) and a student living in the townships of Cape Town is very interesting. The stark
contrasts of these two disparate lives are not overplayed and there is
thankfully none of the generic wailing song that accompanies many Hollywood
depictions of poor people in Africa. But sadly the film, for the most part, has a
script that barely rises above cliché. The direction by Phil Harrison is flat
despite the use of some stunning locations. At a short 74 minutes, it really
feels like a slightly padded hour long episode of television.
The cast do their best but aside
from Gillen and Thabang Sidloyi (who is excellent) as the student Sifiso there
is very little else. Kelly Campbell plays Gillen’s wife but it is a part that
is barely there. This is all a real pity as the film has an ace up its sleeve
that is revealed far too late. There is a scene right at the end that intercuts
the two stories in a fascinating and surprising way. But at this stage I had
given up on the film and its characters. This may be worth a watch at home on
TV but it doesn’t do enough to warrant a trip to the cinema.
No comments:
Post a Comment