Review of Disgrace (2008) by Luke P — 04 Feb 2010

As the main character Malkovich makes an unconvincing South African, a rather doubtful casanova, but a very convincing dull lecturer at Cape Town university. Sacked after a fairly inexplicable, yet concensual affair with a student, the charmless Lurie takes refuge on his daughter's farm where a horrific chain of events unfolds, encapsulating the white malaise in modern South Africa.

The film is loaded with subtle metaphor, for which I give credit. We are tempted to see Lurie's exploitation of the 'coloured' girl at uni (for which she seeks and is given, 'justice') counterpointed by the much more brutal gangrape of his daughter, which is also, concensual, but for which she claims no rights and seeks no justice. It is a personal journey, of two characters lost and resigned to their own demise in a changing nation, as if that is their only choice (with part of me screaming, surely not). It's well acted and there are some lovely shots of this underfilmed country, but I found the ending to be rather abrupt and the moral message, about exploitation, resignation and redemption slightly muddled. I'm left feeling that this film could have offered much more than that, but it seems a bit unfair to fault the filmmakers, who have after all produced a faithful rendition of Coetzee's novel.