Clint Eastwood's Invictus is a simple sports movie that was poorly advertised as a political biopic of Nelson Mandela. The film attempts to straddle multiple genres, and it actually does so quite well, but the problem is that none of the component parts are very fleshed out or satisfying. For example, Nelson Mandela is painted as a man who is filled to the brim with provocative quotes on life, but you never really figure out his motivations or reasonings. Matt Damon's character makes the observation that after being imprisoned for so long, he walked out ready to forgive those who put him in prison. He doesn't understand why, and neither do we. We never truly discover what makes him so perfect. Not only that, but hinting at a failed marriage is not enough to make him "complex." It seemed like Eastwood was more checking off the "imperfect" box than actually making Mandela realistic. The same shortcomings could be said of the rugby aspect. Invictus is an exciting sports movie, but it was not truly inspirational as it was very adamantly trying to be.
The technical aspects were also a mixed bag. For example, the acting was spectacular but the characters were incompetently written. Most of the cinematography and editing was adequate, but the final few minutes featured horrendous slo-mo that was so obviously overdone that it made me cringe. For every pro, there's a comparable con. The movie is not a great movie, but it also isn't a bad movie. It's just somewhere in the middle. So watch it if you feel like you've been waiting for this movie, but otherwise I'd say pass.IMDb link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1057500/