Director: Henk Pretorius (2015)
A prickly rose blooms in the heat of the veldt in this amiable and unremarkable Afrikaans romcom.
It’s a pleasant enough trip but one lacking in any ambition except the desire not to cause offence. It’s absolutely unobjectionable, almost insultingly so.
Irish actress Katie McGrath plays Jodie, a drama school teacher and aspiring big screen thesp who heads to South Africa to research a film role she has yet to win.
Her accent is determinedly none specific except when her natural intonation breaks through.
On arrival she’s nearly run over by hunky Bok van Blerk who agrees to take her back to his drought-ridden farm so she can sample rural life.
He’s sort of intense, she’s kind of bossy. They bicker and seem ill-matched. Who knows what the fates may have in store for them.
In return for board and lodge she agrees to direct the annual farmyard concert. This allows the script to drive in a flock of local eccentrics.
As weak attempts at humour fall to take root on the barren comedy ground, the green shoots of romance are blighted by unexpected arrivals.
With Nelson Mandela, blood diamonds and sci-fi allegory dominating the country’s cinematic exports, it’s nice to encounter a South African offering which purposefully avoids politics in any form.
It’s a shame then this the RSA equivalent of a Richard Curtis chocolate box movie. It’s cosy, affectionate and full of regard for ordinary country folk and their amusing little ways. And it’s none too funny.
The agreeable cast go about their business with enthusiastic competence.
But there’s an unforgivable lack of villainy or devilment. The uneven script can’t even bring itself to be beastly about the British, and lord knows we’ve supplied them with enough historical ammunition.
Even the traditional romcom dash to the airport is reduced to a brief skip across the front porch.
Truths are spoken, lessons are learnt and personal growth occurs. But it time seems to move so slowly in the countryside it’s hard to care.