Opening

77% Fast & Furious 6 May 24
39% The Hangover Part III May 23
93% Epic May 24
96% Before Midnight May 24
67% We Steal Secrets: The Story Of Wikileaks May 24
88% Fill the Void May 24
—— A Green Story May 24
—— Alyce Kills May 24

Top Box Office

86% Star Trek Into Darkness $70.2M
78% Iron Man 3 $35.8M
49% The Great Gatsby $23.9M
46% Pain & Gain $3.2M
69% The Croods $3.0M
77% 42 $2.8M
56% Oblivion $2.3M
98% Mud $2.2M
37% Peeples $2.2M
8% The Big Wedding $1.2M

Coming Soon

—— After Earth May 31
—— Now You See Me May 31
100% The Kings of Summer May 31
88% The East May 31

In My Country (2004)

tomatometer

22

Average Rating: 4.8/10
Reviews Counted: 81
Fresh: 18 | Rotten: 63

A well-intentioned but melodramatic look at post-Apartheid South Africa.

21

Average Rating: 5.1/10
Critic Reviews: 28
Fresh: 6 | Rotten: 22

A well-intentioned but melodramatic look at post-Apartheid South Africa.

audience

56

liked it
Average Rating: 3.3/5
User Ratings: 3,237

My Rating

Movie Info

The many emotional scars left by South Africa's history of institutionalized racism come under the microscope in this drama. As South Africa comes to terms with the legacy of apartheid, their government has created the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, in which the perpetrators of racial violence and injustice must come face to face with their victims if they are to be forgiven for their crimes. Langston Whitfield (Samuel L. Jackson) is an African-American journalist who is assigned to cover

R,

Drama, Romance, Art House & International

Ann Peacock

Jul 5, 2005

Sony Pictures Classics - Official Site External Icon

Watch It Now

Cast

ADVERTISEMENT

All Critics (87) | Top Critics (30) | Fresh (18) | Rotten (64) | DVD (5)

It shows what can go wrong when a good-intentioned filmmaker mixes historical tragedy with Hollywood banality.

June 9, 2005 Full Review Source: Arizona Republic
Arizona Republic
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Ostensibly about the aftermath of apartheid, but the pain of a people serves only as a backdrop for the most contrived of love stories.

April 22, 2005 Full Review Source: Detroit Free Press
Detroit Free Press
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Is it a docudrama about South Africa's post-apartheid Truth and Reconciliation Commission hearings? Or is it love story? The problem with In My Country is that it tries to be both.

April 14, 2005 Full Review Source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Black, white and clunky.

April 11, 2005 Full Review Source: Globe and Mail
Globe and Mail
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Need[s] to be seen, as essential history and as demonstration of a form of social reckoning where compassion triumphs over passion, and the olive branch over the gun.

April 8, 2005 Full Review Source: Toronto Star
Toronto Star
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Failing to get beyond trite Hollywood romantic conventions, sermonizing caricatures and 'I was just following orders' explanations does a great disservice to history.

April 8, 2005 Full Review Source: Orlando Sentinel
Orlando Sentinel
Top Critic IconTop Critic

In spite of narrative missteps that negate the possibility of an empathetic protagonist, "In My Country" does viably introduce the African principle of "Ubuntu" whereby evil transgressions are absolved rather than revenged.

April 16, 2009 Full Review Source: ColeSmithey.com
ColeSmithey.com

A familiar, superficial lesson.

April 22, 2006 Full Review Source: F5 (Wichita, KS)

The film's affecting ingredients are unimpeachably genuine, but this rendering for the most part rings dramatically hollow.

October 5, 2005 Full Review Source: Now Playing Magazine

Points for trying and all, but this particular chapter of South Africa's history deserves a movie a bit more sincere -- and a lot less corny.

July 21, 2005 Full Review Source: DVDTalk.com
DVDTalk.com

Intelligent piece that does its job as entertainment. More importantly, it should advance public knowledge about the apartheid government's human rights violations.

June 2, 2005

Watching [apartheid victims'] testimony become background noise for Jackson and Binoche's tawdry melodrama is aggravating.

May 13, 2005
Salt Lake Tribune

Its star, Juliette Binoche, may be a fine actress, but she's also very French. And no matter how hard she tries to perfect the tricky Afrikaans accent, she's simply not believable playing a South African poet.

May 13, 2005 Full Review Source: Deseret News, Salt Lake City
Deseret News, Salt Lake City

I do not question the filmmaker's sincerity, but he has made a flat, uninvolving movie. The road to boredom is paved with good intentions, after all.

May 9, 2005 Full Review Source: EricDSnider.com
EricDSnider.com

...the foxhole relationship that develops between Anna and Langston is completely natural -- up until the point where they fall into bed together.

April 29, 2005 Full Review Source: Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

The gripping material is given short thrift in favor of routine melodrama and a love story that has nearly nothing to do with what should be the crux of the story.

April 28, 2005
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

There is great material here and ample food for thought, but the presentation is lacking.

April 23, 2005 Full Review Source: Austin Chronicle
Austin Chronicle

You feel insulted you're expected to care about the petty problems of the leads when other characters are dealing with child murder, political torture and genocide.

April 22, 2005
Commercial Appeal (Memphis, TN)

Audience Reviews for In My Country

This movie moved at a snails pace. Its a serious and sad subject, but the way it was presented made it seem secondary to the budding, uninteresting romance.
May 25, 2012
itsjustme2004

Super Reviewer

Jackson and Binoche put it on the line in John Boorman's In My Country. Boorman tries to invoke tears but isn't able to connect with the audience as much as the plot could have allowed. Dealing with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of South Africa In My Country has moments of brilliance but is never very strong in any faucet.
April 3, 2012
No quotes approved yet for In My Country. Logged in users can submit quotes.

Discussion Forum

There are no discussion threads for In My Country yet.

Latest News on In My Country

August 17, 2006:
Critical Consensus: "SOAP," "Material Girls" Not Screened; "Accepted" Denied; "Sunshine" Shines
This week at the movies, we've got snakes.... on a plane ("Snakes on a Plane," starring...

September 8, 2005:
Critical Consensus: Critics Pan "Emily Rose," "The Man"
This week at the movies features two of our favorite story elements: demonic possession ("The...

Help | About | Jobs | Critics Submission | API | Licensing | Mobile