Catch A Fire

For 90 minutes, Catch A Fire is a good but unexceptional film. Sure, the direction is professional; the acting is understated and nuanced; the narrative is clear and strong; and the action is captivating without being overblown. But, there is still this feeling of over-familiarity and disinterest in me through out. It is like watch an extremely good TV movie on a super large screen TV. Everything, from the characters to the plot to the direction and acting, has been done many times before. I know how everything going to happen and who the people are. If it were a TV movie, it certain would win all the Grammy’s with just he first 90 minutes; but it would eventually be forgotten, not only by history but also by people who saw it. Catch A Fire is, however, not so easily forgettable. It is the last five minute that shakes the audiences out of this complacency. All of a sudden the narrator appears and he is not the actor but the actual person the story is about--Patrick Chamusso. He is on screen finish telling the story. The whole theatre collective inhaled deeply when Chamusso’s face appears on screen and we recognized this voice. It is not a TV movie, not your typical biopic; it is actually Chamusso’s own story. That is a shock since we have been trained so well to ‘suspend our disbelief’, i.e. to act as if what we know to be fiction is actually occurring in the present. This ‘as if’ provided a distance between us, the audience, and the events presented. It allows us to choose the way in which we want to be affected, and certainly disinterest and complacency from familiarity is one outcome. Phillip Noyce is one clever director. By leading us through a very conventional story and storytelling, he hits us when we most unexpected by breaking this “as if” and makes us realize, like it or not, that the word should really be “is.” At this point we have no choice but to face up to the facts as facts and not as a make belief. In accomplish this, Noyce makes this a exceptional film indeed.