Tim Robbins stars as Nic Vos an anti-terrorism agent in South Africa in 1980, prior to the abolition of apartheid. When there is an explosion at a local nuclear power plant, Robbins is convinced that Patrick (Derek Luke), a plant supervisor, is guilty of the crime when his alibi falls flat.

The film stars with Patrick as a working family man who wants nothing to do with politics at all, even after the explosion at the plant. Then came the false accusations against him (as well as torture) drive him to actually join in with the terrorists. Or should i say he meanders over to join with them. And that example pretty much sums up what’s wrong with this movie.

I didn’t buy Patrick’s sudden interest in joining with the terrorist. Yeah, he was tortured by the government and that would make for a reasonable explanation to why he did it, but it just didn’t come across that way at all. For one, he had to separate from his family forever, making no contact with them after he joins the group. And he seems to do this on a whim with no specific deciding moment at all; the next thing you know, he just joins up. Another problem was Tim Robbins’ performance in the movie. I’ve talked about one dimensional characters before, but he didn’t even have that.

This is the first zero-dimension character I have reviewed. I have no idea what Robbins’ emotions were, his motivation, or his true character. The character’s personality even contradicts itself. In one scene, he watches his men torture Patrick from afar, then when he visits him in his cell the next day, he yells at his men, screaming, “What did you do to him?” I thought maybe he was just trying to seem like the ‘good guy’ to Patrick, but if that was the case, they didn’t follow up on that.

I never even knew who this movie was trying to portray as the bad guy, quite honestly. It showed Robbins’ caring for his family and teaching them how to shoot a gun because they are often targets of terrorist attacks, so I thought maybe they were going for the, "both men’s sides have a point and maybe each character had good intentions,” but each others actions towards one another was never justified, at least not in a script and performance senes, anyway. One would think that such atrocities against yourself and your people would be enough to join in the fight against the abusers, but it just didn't come across that way. Robbins' side seemed to have no motivation and Patrick’s side didn’t come across as genuine. The film also assumes that the viewer knows details about South African history at this time; it kept using a particular anacronym over and over and didn’t actually say what it was until the movie was half over. That didn’t score it any points either. It just didn’t work, folks.

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