"As jy sing" is a musical. I understand that. And any musical will have some exaggerated characters. This movie, however, takes the phrase "cardboard character" to a whole new level.
The movie starts with a quick montage sequence where each of the main characters is briefly introduced literally with an accompanying label (or, more aptly, stereotype) for the character. This is the first and last attempt that is made to distinguish the characters for the rest of the film.
The movie is set against the very real South African backdrop where Rugby is often adored in schools to such an extent that cultural interests such as music is completely neglected and those that practice it almost ostracized. The unrealistic and extreme extent to which the characters are, however, blinded to only one side of the "sport vs music" debate make the characters completely unbelievable to me.
The romance between Bobby van Jaarsveld's character and Leah's character seems forced and shallow with no chemistry whatsoever except for the fact that they are man and woman.
The boot-camp that forms the main setting for most of the movie is set in a lovely location and is a clever idea in principle: Most Afrikaans South Africans would probably experience some camp like this sometime during their school careers. And yet again, it is here where the characterization falls completely flat. The over-the-top emotionally scarred ex-army drill sergeant played by Bok van Blerk is totally over the top and unrealistic. The same applies to his assistants. The way that Bobby van Jaarsveld's character responds to these drill sergeants is equally unrealistic for anyone who has ever seen a real teacher on a school camp. Bad, bad writing indeed.
One would hope that a redeeming element for such a movie is the music, but here too it disappoints. None of the songs tend to really resonate with the viewer and in many parts I simply felt that the words in the music simply did not fit in well with the current point of the film. (The one exception perhaps being Bobby van Jaarsveld's acoustic version of "'n vrou wil dit hoor".)
The film is riddled with clichés: the worse probably being where the token super-hot school girl walks down the corridors in slow motion with her hair clearly being blown around her face by off-screen fans. (Although Bok van Blerk's slow-motion Rambo-jump from a chopper and Bobby van Jaarsveld's slow-motion undressing scene at the swimming pool with accompanying electric guitars are also close contenders.)
"As jy Sing" is a bunch of beautiful and very talented actors and musicians thrown together with a horrifically bad script, average music and a director that did not show any creativity or vision on this project. Bobby van Jaarsveld has shown in the superb musical "Liefling" that he has what it takes to be a great leading man. Karlien van Jaarsveld gives a good performance and is the pick of the actors. The idea behind the movie is creative and truly South African as is the film setting. This movie really had so much potential, but yet failed to deliver. Very disappointing.
