This South African thriller trades plausibility and originality for a worthy substitute: a great deal of fun.
A South African thriller haunted by the ghosts of many Hollywood blockbusters past, “Indemnity” trades plausibility and originality for a worthy substitute: a great deal of fun.
In this feature debut by Travis Taute, a brooding firefighter with PTSD (reminiscent of innumerable troubled action heroes), is accused of murdering his wife (à la “The Fugitive”) and goes on the run to uncover a complex techno-political conspiracy (bearing pointed parallels to “The Manchurian Candidate”).
The script is a patchwork of tropes, but Taute’s eye for sleek, surprising action sequences and the leads’ movie-star charisma make this an eminently entertaining watch.
Jarrid Geduld plays Theo Abrams, a star of the local fire department who is placed on mental health leave after witnessing the deaths of two colleagues in a blaze they were fighting. He wakes up one morning to find his investigative-journalist wife, Angela (Nicole Fortuin), strangled to death, just hours after she receives a scoop about a sinister government plot. Given Theo’s recent spate of binge-drinking and manic outbursts, the authorities deem him the prime suspect in her death. So off he goes zigzagging across Cape Town, dodging both the police and some mysterious bald baddies.
Taute overstuffs “Indemnity” with subplots about police corruption, Theo’s past traumas and pan-African deep-state intrigue. But there’s an endearing sincerity to the film’s commitment to all this elaborate narrative scaffolding (including some fascinating real-world commentary on South Africa’s racial politics) for what is essentially a string of “Mission Impossible” — style escapades. Taute contrives clever spatial set pieces — playing off the architectural possibilities of elevators, skyscrapers, a labyrinthine chemical factory — while Geduld, performing his own stunts for the most part, shows off a grungy physicality that feels rare in today’s plastic, CGI-driven actionverse.
Indemnity
Not rated. In Afrikaans and English, with subtitles. Running time: 2 hours 4 minutes. In theaters and available to rent or buy on Amazon, Google Play and other streaming platforms and pay TV operators.
Source: Movies - nytimes.com
