THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, September 15, 1994 TAG: 9409150054
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E5 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Movie Review
SOURCE: BY MAL VINCENT, MOVIE CRITIC
LENGTH: Medium: 80 lines
AN OUTSTANDING cast and a thoughtful director work hard to make something cinematically different out of William Boyd's 1981 novel about dirty politics and sexual shenanigans in colonial Africa. The result is ``A Good Man in Africa,'' an odd mixture of social satire and comedy.
There are several very funny moments, but the bizarre mixture never really melds into either comedy or drama. At best, it is an occasionally laughable diversion. At worst, it is a satirical misfire.
Colin Friels, an Australian actor with a boyish yet mature exterior, has the lead as Leafy, a low-ranking British diplomat in the fictional West African nation of Kinjanja. He spends most of his time womanizing or boozing. He's a rather likable clown, who lives for the day he can return to London. He has a native mistress but keeps her hidden. He develops a case of gonorrhea, which severely inhibits him when the sex-starved daughter of his diplomat boss makes herself available. Leafy has a persistent habit of getting into trouble.
When he's caught in bed with the wife of the country's new president, he's blackmailed into trying to bribe Sean Connery, who plays a local doctor. In turn, the head of the local British contingent (a badly miscast John Lithgow) yells at him a lot.
Things get worse when the maid is hit by lighting and the natives, because of a tribal superstition, won't allow anyone to move her body.
The film is meant, one supposes, to smack of the political satires of Graham Greene, but as directed by Australian Bruce Beresford, it is much too goofy to be taken seriously. It's a little as if the Marx Brothers took time out between comic routines to comment on politics.
Things are further obscured by the suggestion that it is set in the 1990s, even though all West African countries have long been independent. There is no hint of modern Africa's real plight, the problems of tribalism rather than the remnants of colonialism.
Audiences are likely to be thrown a curve by the fact that Connery has a supporting role. His star magnetism sets the film off balance. The British are pictured as stodgy hypocrites and the natives as buffoons. Connery keeps his dignity throughout - wearing his star presence rather than playing a mere character.
Joanne Whalley-Kilmer plays the president's sluttish wife and lives only to have an affair with Leafy.
Diana Rigg, as Lithgow's wife, upholds the movie's premise that all the local white women are sex-starved vixens. Louis Gossett Jr. (an Oscar winner for ``An Officer and a Gentleman,'' who has had cheapjack roles since) has little to do as the crooked, newly elected prez, who hopes to make millions in a land deal. Things reach a fever pitch when vast oil reserves are discovered off the coast and the British want to get the rights.
There is more comic mania when a haughty British grande dame, a relative of Queen Elizabeth and somewhere near 42nd in line for the throne, is set to visit. Things get a bit desperate when Leafy, dressed in a Santa Claus suit, is forced to hide in her shower.
Beresford is an unpredictable director whose work has varied from the solid folksiness of ``Driving Miss Daisy'' and ``Crimes of the Heart'' to the historical thoughtfulness of ``Black Robe'' and his underrated ``Mister Johnson,'' which was also set in Africa.
The cast is always interesting to watch. There are a few outlandish laughs, but Beresford can't really make up his mind whether he wants to make an African version of ``Passage to India'' or to repeat ``The Gods Must Be Crazy.'' ILLUSTRATION: Graphic
``A Good Man in Africa''
Cast: Colin Friels, Sean Connery, John Lithgow, Diana Rigg,
Joanne Whalley-Kilmer, Louis Gossett Jr., Maynard Fziashi
Director: Bruce Beresford
Screenplay: William Boyd, based on his novel
MPAA rating: R (nudity, sexual situations, some language)
Mal's rating: 2 and 1/2 stars
Locations: Movies 10 in Chesapeake; Circle 4 in Norfolk;
Lynnhaven 8, Pembroke and Surf-N-Sand in Virginia Beach
by CNB