Invictus (2009)

Invictus is neither a biographical film nor a complete sports film... It's a sports drama twined around the political career of Nelson Mandela but watching `INVICTUS' is certainly an educational experience... i must admit i knew little of Nelson Mandela before watching this film...n after watching this movie i can jus say it is one of the most influential, positive, and empowering movies I've  watched in the recent times..

Eastwood's beautiful n admirable attempt to shows how sports can unify people. In single line Invictus is a movie about dark days of South African country in 1990s when racial tension between the whites and blacks was quite dominant.

Coming to the plot, as this movie is semi-biopic and biopics are (obviously) based on facts, so nothing creative to applaud about the plot but i would rather appreciate the screenplay of the movie. IMO whenever plot got less scope to build n if screenplay is badly written then movie will surly see its doomsday at the box office.

Some scenes in the movie are actually inspiring, but that's more because of Freeman and not the script.

Talking about the cast...it is very strong... Morgan Freeman gives a fine performance wonderfully recasting Nelson Mandela's wonderful facial expressions, gestures, physical style and speech pattern...Matt Demon is equally good. Weighing movie in terms of emotional quotient, it does dig very deep. One understands how Mandela changes the mood of his country . The scenes--some of which are extraordinary, some are powerful, intense and suspenseful too ( ok, at least little suspense was felt...LOL) --but few scenes i found were self-contained, they don't link up emotionally with one another.... resulting is a 'cinematic slide show'....yawn ...yawn.

However, the movie does glamourize Mandela, it does make of him as a flawless 'larger-than-life' hero, but again for many countless reasons, the film is greatly in debt to Morgan Freeman. If it weren't for his engaging and powerful performance then this film would be very bland for the majority. He makes a charismatic leading man and it is difficult to imagine that anyone else could have done a better job with this role - or that the film would have worked without him.

Final verdict: 

All things considered, "Invictus" is a very good film that provides some intriguing insight into the motivations of a 20th century’s worldwide icon of freedom and reconciliation.

My rating : 8/10

{P.S: I am huge fan of Clint Eastwood….readers discretions is adviced…LOL)