Little Moments Burn Brightest in 'Catch a Fire'

Liberty isn’t really all that dramatic. Scrape off the gooey rhetoric that envelops the idea and what you’ve essentially got is a bunch of people just puttering around. It’s actually really pleasant if you’ve got the right perspective, but it probably wouldn’t make a very interesting movie.

Unless, of course, you’re a director named Phillip Noyce, and your past credits include “The Quiet American” and “Rabbit-Proof Fence.” Noyce’s latest film, “Catch a Fire,” is ostensibly a political thriller about apartheid. But beneath the guns and explosions, it’s the quiet and seemingly mundane interactions that really stand out.

A daughter singing along to a Bob Marley song on the radio. A silly quarrel with the wife. Coaching youth soccer. Noyce’s understated directing style captures these humbly holy episodes exceedingly well, and he has the intelligence to recognize that, much more so than words like “freedom,” it’s these charming and incidental moments that are really worth fighting for.

The film focuses on Patrick Chamusso (Derek Luke), an apolitical black man working as a foreman at an oil refinery just east of Johannesburg. After the refinery is sabotaged and Chamusso refuses to use his infidelity as an alibi for the authorities, he finds himself at the mercy of Nic Vos (Tim Robbins), a Colonel in South Africa’s Police Security Branch. After some harsh interrogation tactics, Chamusso is eventually released, but only after his friend is killed and wife battered as part of the investigation. Livid, Chamusso joins the African National Congress, a militant activist group dedicated to ending apartheid by any means necessary.

Luke’s earnest portrayal of a conflicted man’s transformation from soccer dad to revolutionary rings true, and in doing so lends a much-needed recontextualization of the debate surrounding the distinction between terrorists and freedom fighters. In our polarized political climate, Chamusso’s true story strangely feels like a parable that ought to be required viewing for anyone who still believes in the innate evil of those who dare oppose America.

Though “Catch a Fire” certainly has something to say about contemporary international relations, the film also

provides a vivid portrait of a nation in transition. Perhaps too vivid, in fact—Noyce often feels obligated to hold his audience by the hand and slowly explicate the effects of encroaching Western lifestyle on African tribalism.

Towards the beginning of the film, for instance, we’re treated to shots of an African wedding alternately populated by Italian suits and men in loincloths. In case you didn’t get the point, patrons then dance to a tribal song, followed by, of course, “Hot Stuff.”

There’s nothing particularly wrong with moments like these—the only really heavy-handed moment comes in a split-shot scene depicting an African spiritual and a Dutch military march for each group’s respective fallen soldiers—but in occasionally opting for the big, fat markers instead of the fine paintbrush, Noyce keeps “Catch a Fire” in the realm of feel-good-but-ultimately-forgettable films. For a film so rife with relevant ideas, it’s biggest sin is that Chamusso’s internal resolution feels a bit glossed over.

Still, as far as nice-enough films go, this one’s in the upper echelon. Sure, Tim Robbins delivers the same old performance he’ll be doing for the rest of his life (effortless, in his case, is turning in to less and less of a positive adjective), but this film is more about ideas than individual performances. The fire’s not as blazing as Noyce might like, but it’s certainly warm enough to keep conversations stoked hours after the credits roll.

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