Stander

Based on a true story, Stander has the credibility of a white lie. In a black country, that's a joke. Except it's not funny.

Stander is a cop in pre-independence South Africa. Apartheid has a grip on the sensibilities of the law enforcement officers, who appear to a man to be institutionally racist. The ANC, or rather the politics of the dispossessed, has awakened an anger amongst the people. Riots erupt in the townships without warning and the police face them down with tear gas and live ammunition.

It is after one of these impromptu protest marches, during which unarmed Africans are killed, that Stander walks away from it. He doesn't hand in his badge and join the movement for change; he robs a bank.

The film is well made and beautifully photographed. Why hire a B-list American (Thomas Jane) to play Stander and a Canadian (Deborah Kara Unger) who studied her craft in Australia to play his wife when there are enough excellent home-grown actors to fill these roles? It smacks of studio insecurity and a lack of belief in the product.

Stander goes on to rob numerable banks and become the nation's Most Wanted. He picks up a couple of ex-cons to be in his gang; it's so conventional it would be comical if anyone had a sense of humour, which they don't.

Even though Stander is a charmer - he might have been The Sundance Kid in another life - you have no idea why he's doing it. His motivation may be to hurt the financial roots of a country too sick to recognise the evil that it does, or it may be because he was bored of the day job. Whichever way it falls and however hard he tries to convince you that he's Danny Ocean's 13th man, there is an empty space at the centre of this movie where its heart should be.

The biggest waste is Unger who for years has been giving strong supporting performances. She is sidelined and marginalized, left to smoulder in a bare room, when the emotional rage of Bekkie Stander has twice the eloquence of her arrogant, stupid husband.