Waste of time

the audience applauded

Boring, long, and too preachy.

Great movie! If you want to be entertained and have a few good laughs, see this movie. The music is also very good,

It's 1985 South Africa. Public affairs director of Consolidated Goldfields Michael Young (Jonny Lee Miller) sneaks into a township looking for people to secretly negotiate with. Eighteen months later in London, he makes contact with ANC Head of Information Thabo Mbeki (Chiwetel Ejiofor). He is stalked by government agents as he tries to convince Professor Willie Esterhuyse (William Hurt) to join in the effort. Head of intelligence Dr. Neil Barnard (Mark Strong) meets Nelson Mandela (Clarke Peters) in prison. Company head Rudolph Agnew (Derek Jacobi) finances the secret meetings but will deny any knowledge of Michael's plans if discovered. In 1988 Somerset, England, the group gathers to negotiate in a palatial estate.This is a drama of an important moment in history. The first half hour has great tension as Michael scrambles to organize this negotiation. The suspense is mostly lost once the group gathers at that mansion. The outcome is never in doubt. The actors are strong and they keep it watchable.

Story of the negotiations that brought an end to Apartheid in South Africa. Very good film with a great performance from Jonny Lee Miller, who is complimented by saying"It takes a great man to change the world and remain in the shadows". Miller plays the man who makes it all happen so all of the bigger names can get together and agree to change things. I liked the film, but on a certain level its a bit too much news footage like. Its emotional and touching and tense but there is also a certain amount of distance. too much if you ask me and I was never completely gripped. Still its worth a look if you want to see what it took to change a country.

The end of the hated Apartheid regime in South Africa is an uplifting story, but also, as told in this drama-documentary, an oddly undramatic one. There was no revolution, nor even a commitment to reform from within. Instead, as the system became increasingly untenable on the ground in the face of growing popular unrest, a series of unofficial negotiations between prominent Afrakaaners and the opposition were eventually endorsed by F.W. de Klerk shortly after his appointment as leader of the country, in a tacit acknowledgement that he had run out of other options. Undramatic maybe, but this is still a worthy retelling of the mechanics of the process. It's surprising to see Thabo Mbeki, later much criticised as a later south African leader when he denied that H.I.V. causes A.I.D.S., portrayed here in such a positive light. William Hurt is completely convincing as an Afrikaaner, while 'Wire' veteran Clarke Peters captures the essence of Nelson Mandela with a delicate performance . There's an element of hagiography in the film's treatment of the men who negotiated, but it is justifiably an uplifting story, especially in the knowledge of how, in the main, Mandela has managed to justify his status as virtual deity since his release; and how, for all its continuing problems, South African society has not collapsed with democracy.

Well-scripted and cast this made-for-TV drama would have to work hard to be ineffective. William Hurt, as a liberal Afrikaner university professor Esterhuyse bosses the drama. Thrown inbetween the ANC and Botha's implacable government as a way of coaxing talks into life he also has to withstand the insidious advances of insiders with other agendas. Chiwetel Ejiofor's Mbeki is an earnest character here but for reasons either of performance or historical reproduction he seems strangely marginal. Much more impressive is the (scarily similar) Mandela of Clarke Peters, played as a graceful man two steps ahead of whatever game he's introduced to.There's a host of other cameos - I particularly liked Timothy West's Botha - which fill out the story. It's a competent production, albeit fighting an occasionally losing battle with period detail in central London (21st century buses and entryphone systems in 1985). Somerset looks beautiful too. It can be a bit cursory with the dangers a bit - the stakes that the 'players' face - but there's a lot to cram in. Above all one gets the sense of men trying to resolve things with a decorousness that must be the example for the ensuing national democracy. Stirring stuff. 7/10