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Critics Consensus: Delivered with typically stately precision from director Clint Eastwood, Invictus may not be rousing enough for some viewers, but Matt Damon and Morgan Freeman inhabit their real-life characters with admirable conviction.
Critic Consensus: Delivered with typically stately precision from director Clint Eastwood, Invictus may not be rousing enough for some viewers, but Matt Damon and Morgan Freeman inhabit their real-life characters with admirable conviction.
All Critics (240) | Top Critics (45) | Fresh (183) | Rotten (57) | DVD (9)
Morgan Freeman's portrayal of Nelson Mandela creates a superb moment in time on the movie screen.
A noble and compassionate work that in its later scenes manages successfully to invest our emotions in the triumph of an important - if overlong! - sporting victory.
What Eastwood has done is to assemble a cast of American and South African actors and allow them to create something moving, exciting, and improbably true.
Freeman-as-Mandela is an actor all dressed up with no place to go -- at least, nowhere we didn't already know he was headed.
The story of how Nelson Mandela chose the white-supported national rugby team, the Springboks, to become a symbol of national reconciliation is uncharacteristically optimistic for Eastwood.
[T]he epitome of Hollywood filmmaking in ways both good and bad: uplifting, overlong, ambitious in scope but simple in moral vision, well-crafted but inured to irony.
Invictus is a powerful and moving story.
It is probably enjoyable and rousing enough, and does feature a lovely performance by Morgan Freeman as Nelson Mandela.
Invictus is Eastwood in full Stanley Kramer/Richard Attenborough mode, playing down to the Americans who love cheesy triumphant-sports movies but who generally know little about South Africa and care even less.
... tremendously powerful performances... [Full review in Spanish]
History lesson, classic brand of entertainment and stellar performances mark the arrival of Invictus, a testament to the legacy inspired by the return of a native and genuine hero, Nelson Mandela.
Invictus, like every good Eastwood film, is complexity by way of transparency.
Freeman brings Nelson Mandela to life in an exceptional performance indeed but this barely ordinary drama - inspiring as it may be - fails to match the greatness of its real-life character due to Eastwood's poor directing choices and blatant political naiveté.
Super Reviewer
A moving film but not as powerful as I anticipated. Nevertheless, it does have an important message and reminds one of the great heroism and uncertainty of post-Apartheid South Africa. Matt Damon and Morgan Freeman both give noteworthy performances.
Sports movies usual have social/political redemption/justification as a subplot and Eastwood's entree here is no different, with racial equality thrown in on the side. You know the ending from the very first. And so its up to his leads to carry the weight of "its more than just a game" ballast, which Freeman and Damon admirably do w/o a problem. I learned a bit about rugby, and South Africa seems more of a welcoming place now, so its "mission accomplished!".
The true story of newly elected South African president Nelson Mandela making it his top priority to unite the nation thanks to a successful rugby team. Morgan Freedom is the obvious but perfect choice as Mandela and really turns into the politician, which is particularly difficult considering he is a contemporary celebrity many people are still familiar with. The film stays focused on the president, his ideals and small steps to get the white and black people of South African to overcome the years or resentment. So it's not until the second half that the movie follows the usual sports drama steps, but remains really well done. The sport scenes look realistic and well filmed, but for people unfamiliar with the game, the lack of commentary makes them look kind of arbitrary. That doesn't change the fact that the film is heading for a moving and satisfying climax. It's nice to see that sometimes history does make the right choices and people can change.
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