Better than its mangy reputation.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Apr 23, 2019

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.

| Original Score: C+ | Apr 16, 2009

A familiar, superficial lesson.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Apr 22, 2006

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.

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | Jul 21, 2005

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

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Jun 9, 2005

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

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Jun 2, 2005

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

Full Review | Original Score: 1.5/4 | May 13, 2005

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.

| Original Score: 2/4 | May 13, 2005

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.

| Original Score: C | May 9, 2005

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

Full Review | Original Score: B- | Apr 29, 2005

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.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Apr 28, 2005

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

| Original Score: 2/5 | Apr 23, 2005

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

| Original Score: 2/4 | Apr 22, 2005

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.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Apr 22, 2005

[E]xhaustingly heartbreaking... An unforgettable film about justice...

| Apr 22, 2005

We want to know more about the stories of real-life South Africans, but the Oscar nominees keep standing right in front of them.

Full Review | Original Score: 1/4 | Apr 14, 2005

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.

| Original Score: C- | Apr 14, 2005

Black, white and clunky.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Apr 11, 2005

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.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Apr 8, 2005

A really bad movie about a really important subject is twice the artistic crime -- because, however well-intentioned, it trivializes human suffering while squandering a teaching opportunity.

Full Review | Original Score: D | Apr 8, 2005