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Catch a Fire
EMAILPRINTFocus Features / Universal Studios
Generally favorable reviews
Based on 32 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 12 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Drama | Suspense/Thriller
Written by: Shawn Slovo
Directed by: Phillip Noyce
Release Date:
Theatrical: October 27, 2006
DVD: January 30, 2007
Running Time: 101 minutes, Color
Origin: UK / South Africa / USA
Summary
RATING: PG-13 for thematic material involving torture and abuse, violence and brief language
Starring Tim Robbins, Derek Luke, Bonnie Mbuli, Mncedisi Shabangu, Tumisho Masha, Sithembiso Khumalo, Terry Pheto, and Michele Burgers
Powerfully telling the story of a South African hero's journey to freedom, Catch a Fire is a political thriller that takes place during the country's turbulent and divided times in the early 1980s, and in the new South Africa of today. (Focus Features)
Also On Metacritic
FILM: Clear and Present Danger Rabbit-Proof Fence The Bone Collector The Quiet American The Saint
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database View The Trailer Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer
Philip Noyce's anti-apartheid drama is tense and thoughtful, if somewhat marred by Hollywood-style thrills.
Read Full Review >Baltimore Sun Chris Kaltenbach
Both a condemnation of torture as a political tool and a tribute to the bravery that exists within everyone.
Read Full Review >Newsweek David Ansen
Luke has real movie-star power. He's enormously sympathetic, but this moving, well-crafted movie, written by Shawn Slovo, mercifully doesn't turn him into a plaster saint.
Read Full Review >The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen
Catch a Fire paints the period with a double-sided brush that gives yesterday its due and puts today on notice.
Read Full Review >Premiere Ethan Alter
Right off the bat, Catch a Fire distinguishes itself from other recent international productions about Africa (including The Constant Gardener and The Last King of Scotland) in that it is actually told from an African perspective.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Chronicle Ruthe Stein
This deeply moving and disturbing film derives power from being based on the true story of a black South African who does everything possible, no matter how degrading, to get by within an immoral system, but becomes radicalized almost despite himself.
Read Full Review >New York Post Lou Lumenick
Luke, who seems to have been marking time since his impressive debut in the title role of Denzel Washington's "Antwone Fisher" four years ago, is fiercely good as this reluctant warrior and devoted family man.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum
With the same affinity for stories of culture clash he showed in "The Quiet American" and "Rabbit-Proof Fence," director Phillip Noyce embraces the tale with gusto.
Read Full Review >ReelViews James Berardinelli
Catch a Fire isn't edgy like some of Noyce's previous titles nor is it a big-budget endeavor with A-list stars. Instead, it's a simple and sincere tale of inspiration.
Read Full Review >Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman
Fire shows what happens when a government systematically denies rights to one racial group for decades, but its message is more current.
Read Full Review >Miami Herald Connie Ogle
Screenwriter Shawn Slovo -- whose white parents were anti-apartheid activists in South Africa -- ends his finely tuned screenplay on a note not of violence and anger but of forgiveness. It's a breathtaking coda that reminds us of that undeniable human beauty: the ability to survive, to fight for right -- and then move peacefully on.
Read Full Review >Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea
Luke, who had the title role in Denzel Washington's directorial debut, "Antwone Fisher," is that rare actor who can convey profound inner conflict with just a look in his eye; his performance is attuned, astute and remarkable.
Read Full Review >New York Daily News Jack Mathews
The movie belongs to Luke, who brings the heroic Chamusso to life as richly as Forest Whitaker does the evil Ugandan dictator Idi Amin in "The Last King of Scotland."
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan
The young American actor (Derek Luke) gives such an intense, passionate performance as South African Patrick Chamusso that he just about dares you not to be involved with the tale he is telling.
Read Full Review >Wall Street Journal Joanne Kaufman
An affecting story of punishment and crime, of betrayal and redemption marred by preachiness and a treacly ending, Catch a Fire is notable for its refusal to see things in terms of black and white.
The Hollywood Reporter John DeFore
Comparisons to "Hotel Rwanda" make sense up to a point - both feature heroes who have the scales removed from their eyes - but "Fire" is no tearjerker, and here the story of Chamusso's conversion serves mainly as prologue to the main plot, a history-tinted cat-and-mouse policier in which he will attempt to finish the job he was wrongly accused of starting.
Read Full Review >Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold
The movie is flawed and doesn't completely come off as a convincing biography, but its heart is in the right place, it has moments of poignancy and power, and it makes a pleasant change of pace for a genre that essentially has become a cry of despair.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov
It's always odd to see Robbins, a political activist in his own right, playing at villainy, but here he descends into the role so thoroughly that the lopsided smile becomes less a notation of cockeyed boyishness than a treacherous Cheshire smirk.
Read Full Review >Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy
Whatever you make of the film's politics, Luke makes a vivid impression in his most substantial role since "Antwone Fisher," and Robbins resists the temptation to make the thinly written Vos a villainous caricature.
Read Full Review >TV Guide Ken Fox
Luke gives a powerful performance -- with his looks and talent, he should be a much bigger star -- but Robbins is the one you'll remember. Fixed with the faraway look of a doomed man who knows the center cannot hold, he gazes fearfully toward a future he knows is coming and can do nothing to stop.
Read Full Review >Boston Globe Wesley Morris
In Catch a Fire Noyce has caught the holy spirit. The movie is a thriller that wants to lift you up.
Read Full Review >USA Today Claudia Puig
Though preachy at times, Catch a Fire is a well-constructed action thriller elevated by Luke's performance.
Read Full Review >LA Weekly Ella Taylor
The less rosy message of Catch a Fire is that aggression breeds aggression.
Read Full Review >Variety Todd McCarthy
Stories of resistance to oppression will never become obsolete, but this feels like a picture that should have been made a long time ago.
Read Full Review >Empire Helen O'Hara
An intelligent thriller that effectively conveys the message that terrorism, even in apartheid-era South Africa, is rarely a black-and-white issue.
Read Full Review >Chicago Tribune Jessica Reaves
The horrors of apartheid deserve a better treatment than this.
Read Full Review >Village Voice Robert Wilonsky
In the end, Catch a Fire plays like some weird hybrid on the crazy-quilt filmography of Phillip Noyce, which includes small productions made in his native Australia and the Sharon Stone sexcapade "Sliver." What it's definitely not is the standard-issue movie about apartheid; there's no white protagonist, no pale-faced hero riding in on his high horse to save the oppressed black man.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Desson Thomson
Director Phillip Noyce has made a serious movie that switches to almost popcorn entertainment.
Read Full Review >The New York Times Manohla Dargis
It’s a film that wants to play as if it were ripped from today’s headlines, but has been shredded into near incoherence.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias
The problem with Tim Robbins' dreadful turn as a South African "anti-terrorist" official in Catch A Fire--and it was also a problem with his sniveling Bill Gates impersonation in "Antitrust"--is that he can't hide his distaste for his own character.
Read Full Review >Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum
The film never strays much beyond the obvious, despite a conscientious effort by Tim Robbins to humanize a white security officer.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 6.8 (out of 10) based on 12 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Jason E. gave it a6:
Despite its obvious well-meaning humanistic intentions, "Catch a Fire" remains mired in genre trafficking despite its ambitions to convey the power of self-realization. By repeatedly flushing the screen with the hopeful, joyous chantings/dances of the saintly natives he overshadows the smaller personal story of one man's triumphs over his own mild-mannered acquience to the injustices that plague his nation. Robbins adds a stern introspection that adds slight dynamicism to this otherwise didactic tale.
Chad S. gave it an8:
When Patrick Chamusso (Derek Luke) reaches ANC headquarters, it'll become crystal clear as to why "Catch a Fire" does the story of apartheid some justice. We meet Joe Slovo (Malcolm Purkey), leader of the South African Communist Party, who easily could've been the male protagonist in another film. Thankfully, the filmmaker didn't Alan Parker this baby, and allowed a black man to tell the story of his own reduction. To make allowance for this box office-killing gambit, unfortunately, there's an action scene that seems phoned in from another movie, seemingly, as some sort of cockamamie compromise to give apartheid some sizzle. If you're going to use bombast, use it to honor the memory of the dead, not some flick starring Harrison Ford in full sweat-mode. When depicting the violence that pervaded apartheid, "Catch a Fire" lacks that one defining moment in which we see and feel the monstrous evil of this government-sanctioned racism. It's okay for Patrick to be a bigamist, and Nic Vos (Tim Robbins) to be a good family man (we want complexity in our characters), but apartheid itself should be painted in broader strokes. It pulls back on the blood, which prevents the audience from a few hours of rabble-rousing after leaving the cineplex. In "Mississippi Burning", the ugliness of slavery becomes all-too-visceral when some klansman kicks a young boy in the face. "Catch a Fire" lacks such a moment.
richard haber gave it a9:
Powerful and moving. An important historical film.
Timid Times gave it a7:
A great movie for Tim Robbins to star in and another great movie about the history of Africa. However its no classic like "Cry Freedom" or "Hotel Rwanda". It seems to be looking for the blockbuster getters instead of focusing on the real issues at hand. It's an airbrushed ride through the case of a man. With a PG13 rating and a foggy stardom, it seems only to create havoc for many audience members. But I enjoyed it and I think many people will too. Too bad it flopped in the box office.
Eddy G. gave it a10:
Extremely powerful movie. Excellent.
