nightlydvdreviewDisgrace
March 24th 2010 02:30
John Malkovich with South African newcomer Jessica Haines
Few places in the world can arouse as strong a sense of foreboding in modern consciousness as South Africa. In Disgrace, Australian director Steve Jacobs has presented us with a harrowing exposition of the sum of contemporary South Africa’s misfortunes – its corruption, racism, and crime – in a faithful adaptation of J.M. Coetzee’s Booker Prize winning novel of the same title.
The screenplay for Jacobs’s Disgrace has been expertly written by his co-producer Anna-Maria Monticelli; a difficult task to say the least, given the calibre of the original material. The story follows David Lurie (John Malkovich), a racist, white South African professor who selfishly pursues one of his students. With such subject matter, the opening ten minutes of Disgrace bears at first glance a strikingly similar plot to the recent Elegy, but its narrative develops in a vastly different manner.
The unapologetic David is quickly forced to resign and finds some solace on his daughter Lucy’s remote farm. Their lives are shattered when they are shockingly attacked by three African teenagers, who brutally assault David and rape Lucy, who then becomes pregnant. From this comes David’s real ‘disgrace’; as his abhorrence for black South Africans sinks to new depths, he must also grapple with his growing sense of powerlessness.
John Malkovich delivers another finely etched performance, bringing his famed drawl and name to this otherwise small project. Lucy is portrayed by South African newcomer, Jessica Haines, whose heartbreaking performance becomes the film’s undeniable emotional punch.
With its hard-hitting social commentary on race and misogyny, Jacobs’s Disgrace is a vitally important and intensely powerful film.
5 STARS
| 61 |
| Vote |
subscribe to this blog
