Search - Cape of Good Hope on DVD

Lives forever connected in the new South Africa...

M. J Leonard | Silver Lake, Los Angeles, CA United States | 08/20/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Cape of Good Hope is a delightful movie - maybe even a bit too delightful. And although there may be too many coincidences and happenings that are neatly tied together for some viewers, Cape of Good Hope does an admirable job of showing a city - and a country - still struggling with the legacy of apartied.

Grounded in the easy rhythms of daily life and an absolute must-see for dog lovers, Cape of Good Hope centers on a group of people who are connected to an animal shelter in the Cape Town suburb of Hout Bay. Kate (Debbie Brown) is the white woman who runs the animal shelter, and her obvious love of dogs is tempered by the fact that she's having an affair with a married man.

Her best friend is Sharifa (Quanita Adams), a Muslim woman who works with her at the shelter. Sharifa is married to Habib (David Isaacs) who desperately want to conceive a child. One day Kate meets young Thabo (Kamo Masilo), a boy who lives in a nearby African township. He has a clever dog-named Tupac and Kate hires him and Tupac to entertain at the shelter's open house. Also working at the shelter is Jean Claude (Eriq Ebouaney) a French-speaking refugee, escaping from the violence of the Congo, and who has just applied to immigrate to Canada.

Through Thabo we meet his mother, the beautiful but emotionally frail Lindiwe (Nthati Moshesh), who works as a maid, and Lindiwe's mother, who is conspiring to marry her off to an elderly but affluent local minister. Meanwhile, Kate meets Morne (Morne Visser), a kindly and big-hearted veterinarian who takes a liking to her and invites her to take tango lessons with him.

These respective and loosely connected lives are played out beneath the slopes of the spectacular Table Mountain, and director Mark Bamford doesn't shy away from showing us the economic disparities between the rich and the poor, the white and the black. As this mountain looks down on these people, we see "good hope" played out as the characters search for love, make difficult choices, and contemplate an uncertain future.

Will Jean Claude obtain a visa for Canada? Will Kate be able to shake her emotional frigidity and end her affair, and hopefully hook up with Morne? And will Sharifa and Habib be able to conceive? Will the dog that has been trained to attack blacks be able to get along with everyone in this new egalitarian South Africa?

Cape of Good Hope brings to the forefront the issues of race, immigration and gender politics, but Bamber never hammers these issues home and or resorts to cliché's to make his point. As these utterly believable characters encircle each other, we see whites and blacks working together more often than not, and a country that is even now still grappling with the guilt and scourge of apartheid. This makes the film totally relevant as well as entertaining.

The acting is quite brilliant, and watching the lovely Debbie Brown as Kate come to terms with herself, her self-obsessed mother and her bourgeoning feelings for Morne is just one of the many pleasures this satisfying and memorable film has to offer. And of course the doggies are just adorable! Mike Leonard August 06.
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Great little film

BeachReader | Delaware | 12/16/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I so enjoyed this movie....it was well-done, and I loved the interconnected stories which never seemed contrived. Well-acted and with great fleshing out of all the characters, and a terrific local "flavor" due to the fact that the movie was filmed on location in South Africa and all the actors were from there. A good move on the part of the producers..

It is a story of hope and love - and people whom the viewer can actually care about. It shows that most people care about family, love, and jobs, not politics."