Indemnity

Nothing else to do on a Saturday night because I lost my mojo. I decided to watch this movie. Nice to see my South African brothers in a film. I never seen a South African movie.

My review...

The first 40mins could have been told in 20mins.

A conspiracy thriller it is..a lot of action. Good fight scenes. My question is....

Do the police put handcuffs in the front of a person in South Africa?

For some reason, that visual really bothered me.

It just dragged on and on, with overdone melodramatics and a sappy score. Newb writer, producer and director Travis Taute still did a fairly decent job overall, but the overly long scenes needed editing down so the bloated 124 min runtime be at the most 90 mins. The action was ok, and the story although cliched, routine and predictable, still had some merits. Casting and performances were decent for the most part, with the lead Jarrid Geduld being the least convincing, perhaps due to Taute's inexperience in directing his cast effectively. It's a watchable South-African entry into the action film genre, as long as you have patience.

Well acted and executed local production shot in Cape Town, which is always a plus. A twist on myriad US based pharmeceutical company evil intent stories, the centre of action involves an Africa based plot so it is refreshing to see this continent producing films so watchable. Great job by all concerned and I think it represents an example of African talent on par with the rest of the world.

Not having already seen the 2021 South African crime thriller "Indemnity", as I stumbled upon it here late in 2022, of course I opted to sit down and watch it. I must admit that I was initially intrigued by the movie's somewhat interesting cover.

As I had never heard about writer and director Travis Taute's 2021 crime thriller "Indemnity", nor seen any trailer, then I didn't know what to expect nor what I was in for here. So writer and director Travis Taute had every opportunity to impress and entertain me.

The storyline in "Indemnity" was interesting, to a point. The movie started out great, but director Travis Taute seemed to use the same formula over and over again for each and every single scene, and it quickly grew tiring to watch actor Jarrid Geduld do the same over and over again. And it made the movie's run time of 124 minutes seem way longer than it was. But already at 124 minutes, the movie seriously needed a well-rounded trim in the editing room.

There was a good amount of action in the movie, as the majority of the movie was essentially one action sequence after another. And all that action came at a cost to the storyline, because the script in "Indemnity" was rather weak and simplistic.

I was thoroughly enjoying about half of the movie, but then it dawned on me that it was essentially just the same formula for each scene used repeatedly, and I must admit that my interest in the movie started to dwindle, and it was getting progressively more and more difficult not to drift off.

I wasn't familiar with the cast ensemble in the movie, and I will say that they had put together a good ensemble of talented actors and actresses. Jarrid Geduld, playing Theo, was a good leading actor and seemed suitable for action thrillers.

Visually then "Indemnity" is good. The action sequences are nicely choreographed and executed on the screen. And since the movie is almost a non-stop barrage of action sequences, then you're in for quite a ride.

A shame that the movie didn't play out better than it did, and also that its prolonged run time was killing it, because "Indemnity" could have been a much better movie. Sure, it was watchable for what it was, but this is hardly a movie that warrants more than a single viewing.

My rating of "Indemnity" lands on a five out of ten stars.

"Indemnity"

"Indemnity" follows Theo Abrams (Jarrid Geduld), an ex-Cape Town fireman. He used to be one hell of a firefighter. Today, he's forcibly retired, wracked with PTSD over the on-the-job deaths of friends. His world is rocked when he wakes up next to his wife's Angela (Nicole Fortuin) dead body with no recollection of what transpired and all evidence pointing to him as the killer. Soon, he will find himself the target of every cop in Cape Town, a wanted man denounced as a public danger over a horrific crime he has zero memory of committing. Labeled the prime suspect, Theo quickly finds himself hunted by sinister forces and Detective Rene Williamson (Gail Mabalane), a notoriously ruthless deputy chief of police, and embarks on a breakneck mission to uncover the truth behind his wife's death before a terrifying conspiracy changes the course of a nation forever. In his efforts to understand what happened, Theo will uncover a secret so terrible it will make the cops hunting him become the least of his worries. And all hell will break loose.

Protagonist Theo Abrams is a firefighter on the run after his wife is killed and he's accused of the murder. "Indemnity's" explosive opening sequence depicts the origin of Theo's PTSD, one of the film's central plot elements. As he and his fellow firefighters attempt a daring rescue, tragedy strikes and two of his colleagues are killed. The scene is filmed with actual fire, which required the character to go through specialized training. The compression and force inside the shack is immense. It's all in camera. There's no way you can cheat it because the firemen's visors are clear, so you can see their faces. Literally walking through flames. What a rush!

In the film's most spectacular stunt, Theo climbs out a 21st-story window, drops down one floor and crashes through the window below in order to evade his pursuers. Any film we've watched with stunts that have been performed for real has always given us more entertainment value and a more immersive experience. It feels like we captured a moment of pure desperation and survival on the part of Theo. It's a literal leap of faith. And that's what survival is, doing something without knowing if it's going to go right or wrong.

A nonstop thrill ride packed with stylishly choreographed fights, car crashes, explosions, daring fire rescues and a heart-stopping drop out of a 21st-story window, "Indemnity" is perhaps South Africa's most ambitious homegrown action film. Adding to the fun, lead actor Jarrid Geduld, a newcomer to the genre, performs all of his own spectacular stunts. The film wants the audience to go on a journey with this character and feel like they could be in a situation like that. The audience knows what's real and what's not, and the key point on everything, the flames, the house, the car stuff, the heights, it adds an element of green screen or blue screen. It's a bit too over-the-top and this character maybe wouldn't have done that.

Written by Gregory Mann.