Cape of Good Hope: Critic Reviews

The kind-hearted triumph and the wicked get theirs in Cape of Good Hope, a genuine uplift of a film that even the most diehard cynics will find hard to

Everyone smiles far too much.

The subject matter is much too dark for children, and the tone is not sophisticated enough for adults, so it's hard to know who Mark Bamford had in mind for this awkwardly sentimental drama.

It's hopeful but not saccharine, ambitious but only occasionally broad. And the fact that it's set in a country still grappling with the legacy of apartheid makes its good will all the more relevant.

A post-apartheid film in which the characters are less concerned with politics than with matters of the heart.

There's so much Altmanesque activity in the film that even if some storylines temporarily don't work, others keep making up for them.

No matter how heavy-handed the sentimentality gets, the film's intentions seem sincere.

The intertwining of separate story strands is solidly structured, and the different mini-narratives resolved in unsurprising yet satisfying ways.

Charming if overlong.

The film's strengths are offset by flaws including an excessiveness cutesiness (there are far too many shots of adorable puppies), a tendency toward sentimental cliches and too many jarring shifts in tone.

The stories are interlinked effectively, and the film strikes an upbeat note yet does not address racism and discrimination. For all its affection toward its characters, however, the film is too long and too slack.

A socially-relevant and meaningful film from South Africa which supplies plenty of reasons to feel optimistic about humanity's prospects.

Mostly manages to feel authentic and uplifting, putting a human face on a complex colonial culture.

Cape of Good Hope is a film about people we want so very much to love, people who keep us watching - and keep us smiling.

... there's a temptation to call Cape a South African Crash, but it lacks both complexity and compromised characters.

Brown's spunky, funny Kate helps hold the piece together.

Around the margins of the story are characters whose behavior is unique.

Despite its shortcomings, Cape of Good Hope is a hopeful piece of humanism that is difficult to begrudge too much.

With its warm heart and charming characters, Good Hope is a good choice.

Grounded in the easy rhythms of daily life, this charming little film shows unexpected grit.

A South African movie that departs from the political strife of Apartheid - there are still issues of race and class, but they're approached in a more roundabout, accessible way that isn't so in your face.

[A] warmhearted film ...

I like the spirit of it and some of the performances but [there are] too many cutesy whimsical moments, too many coincidences that just kind of neatly tied things together.

The picture isn't devoid of substance, but it doesn't allow itself to get mired in message either. It conveys its themes via likable, relatable protagonists.