Cape of Good Hope

This may seem like a small film - may not have the gloss and "slickness" of Hollywood productions, but the integral smallness of it all made it a successful and entertaining ensemble piece. Can almost say it's a symphony of sketches about the people and their lives at this Cape Town community.

This is the "Must Love Dogs" movie with heart-warming stories of characters you care for and want to follow on what's happening in their lives and how they cope in their relationships. Sounds like soap (opera)? Isn't everyday life just?

Having recently saw writer-director Rodrigo Garcia's "Nine Lives" - vignettes of nine women and how their lives intertwined, you might say director Mark Bamford's feature debut "Cape of Good Hope" is about three women: Kate, Sharifa and Lindiwe. But then, from another aspect, the script co-written by Bamford and his wife Suzanne Kay (also the producer) revolves around this animal rescue center (there's the must love dogs inference) with Kate the shelter owner who seems to relate more easily with animals than humans, Sharifa the receptionist who has fertility worries at home, and Jean-Claude, a Congo refugee who was an astronomy professor now trying to immigrate to Canada, helping Kate with tending the animals and training (taming) growling dogs. Through the three, we get to meet Morne, the gentle (widowed) veterinarian-studio dance pupil-cook who has his eyes on Kate; Habib, Sharifa's husband who tries to be nonchalant about his wife's pursuit of a viable pregnancy is a soft-hearted man after all; Lindiwe, the pretty single mom to Thabo (the little boy with his pet trick smart dog) who's a housekeeper by day and college student by night, caught Jean-Claude's eyes and a beautiful friendship blossoms.

Now that's not all, we get to realize Kate is rather insecure in her relationships with her Mom, her Dad, and her married lover man (whom we mostly get to 'see' when she talks to him via phone). Then there's the episodes about Kate's Mom and her lover man. Soap it is. But human kindness flows and intertwines, as the obvious key quote uttered by Jean-Claude, that "Love is what keeps the universe glued together." There are magic moments when we see him with Lindiwe, marvelously portrayed by the pairing of Eriq Ebouaney and Nthati Moshesh. Debbie Brown played Kate, splendidly showing all the nervous tension of her insecurities in the most casual of manners, matching the naturalness of Morne Visser playing Morne. The rest of the cast, including the role of Lindiwe's mother, is equally effective and diverse (in spite of clichés). Same with the music by J.B. Eckl, somehow enhances and ties the stories together unobtrusively befitting.

While checking on the word "Mutt," couldn't help but think of the parallel of taking care of mixed-breed dogs, that their temperament and rapport with humans matter, and the investment of time and energy in the nurturing of such is unequivocally similar to human to human relationships.

This may be a small film, but it is richly packed, with its delightful surprises and humor inclusive.

Limp, predictable romantic dramady tries to sell itself with likable, easily relateable characters transcending through to inspirational situations but arrives dead in the water due to the dull performances, trite scripting, and just the glorified made-for-lifetime television feel throughout. Though this may provide substance to some shallow female demographic it caters to throughout the boring character bonding done in this South African town, viewers will rarely maintain interest if they have seen any female ensemble pieces that have even a hint of authenticity. Throughout the movie's professed uplifting tone, the numbingly generic players beat down whatever semi-engaging event this half baked, feel good,Crash-lite chick flick could have been and instead make it an exercise in tedious, stereotypical fluff suitable only for females who wouldn't even care to be bothered thinking about the fact that they've probably seen the same thing done much better so many times before.

"Cape of Good Hope" is the most charming, romantic, women-centered, multi-cultural urban dramedy since "What's Cooking."

Yes husband and wife collaborators Mark Bamford and Suzanne Kay Bamford draw some of the characters as too good (Eriq Ebouaney's "Jean Claude LeReve" is beyond Sidney Poitier in "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?" as literally a Renaissance Man) or too evil, and some of the connections among them are as forced in propinquity as "Crash," but I live in a large city of ethnic neighborhoods and coincidences like these can really happen. And it's a pleasure to see a film about the realities of age, gender, religion, race and class in contemporary South Africa -- including Muslims, Hindus, refugees, emigrants, Afrikaners, Christian blacks --in a humanistic, non-strident approach.

This roundelay of couples and their families have been as touched by the vagaries of universal human fate as by African politics. Each character prejudges another by their appearance or circumstance, and each is psychologically damaged by past relationships, and has amusing human foibles, pretensions or sweet ambitions that are realistically compromised. It is noteworthy that the characters are not the usual young 'uns in the throes of Romeo and Juliet-like first love, but wary, experienced adults who are incrementally challenging boundaries.

While the individuals' stories radiate out of their connections to a dog shelter as in J.M. Coetzee's bitter South African novel "Disgrace," the irony of anecdotes like a dog that was trained to attack blacks or the insistence of potential adoptive owners for a purebred instead of the affectionate mutts or the veterinarian widower who longingly whispers after the woman in charge "rescue ME", is a gentle look at the complicated post-apartheid city. All now have to learn to co-exist, and even become friends, as each person takes a step forward and brings their families with them. And, yeah, you can teach an old dog new tricks.

The acting by men, women and child is very natural across several languages. Accented English is their cross-cultural communication, but in the heat of moments with their own, each resorts to their native tongue. While it is lovely to see different neighborhoods in Capetown, the human experiences are universal. For example, the educational, economic and romantic strivings of immigrants are similar to what we saw in "Hester Street."

There is only a little music, but it adds to the commentary on local interactions with the global culture.

The conclusion may be a bit too idealistic, but by that point the characters have all been fully established and their actions do feel right for those appealing individuals. I don't even like dogs, but it does sweetly make one believe that it is possible that individuals will be judged not by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

Saw Cape at the Tribeca film festival. Beautifully told story that takes the viewer into the lives of real people who somehow find 'hope' in hopeless situations. The movie takes place at an animal rescue center where the woman running it has more luck with dogs than lovers. Working there is a cultured astronomer from the Congo who has can't get a decent job because of his refugee status. The secretary there is a Muslim who desperately wants to have children. These all meet up with a domestic worker through her young boy's dog. As the plot develops love seems to hurdle over tremendous problems and life made hopeful.

Audience response was very enthusiastic and the viewers were so totally wrapped up in the character's lives that they asked about a sequel.

The cast of native Africans made this film believable and the direction of the film assumes the viewer is intelligent. This will be another 'whale rider' in popularity and beauty.

Cape of Good Hope is the South African equivalent of Love Actually. It's three separate (yet connected) love stories set in post-Apartheid South Africa, where a person's skin color still determines their social status. A white woman's fears of abandonment keep her in an adulterous affair with a married man, while the man who truly loves her remains invisible. A black woman struggles to support her son and aging mother by working full-time as a housekeeper and working her way through college. The man she falls in love with has a PhD in Astronomy from a university in Congo, but he can't even get a job as a janitor in a planetarium because he is black. A Muslim couple tries to get pregnant, but the husband refuses to believe they can't have children.

Cape of Good Hope says as much about racism as it does about love, but it never comes across as preachy, cheesy, or artificial. These are sweet and intelligent characters who you might just find yourself falling in love with as well. (I'd take a South African man with an Afrikaans accent any day!!!) For all our movie reviews, visit www.austinmovieshow.com.