Tsotsi has been compared to City of God by a lot of reviewers, but the similarity is only superficial thanks to location - in this case the townships of South Africa, compared to Rio's sprawling shanty towns. My memory of City of God - and it's a few years since I saw it, isn't one of redemption, which is what Tsotsi is all about.
Ironically, it is in this respect that the film is at it's weakest. Tsotsi, the central character, makes decisions that are both illogical and irrational throughout the film, and while it's perfectly acceptable to argue that real people are always making irrational decisions, when it happens in a film it really doesn't work. After brutally gunning down a woman who's car he's attempting to steal, Tsotsi finds a baby in the back seat which he takes with him instead of abandoning it as you might expect him to.
The decision pretty much seals Tsotsi's fate, but not before we are shown the parallels he draws between his own deprived past and the opportunity of redemption looking after the baby offers him. It's something of a stretch, it has to be said and you get the impression that writer/director Gavin Hood - who has moved on to more mainstream Hollywood fare recently - only has a tenuous grip on what he's trying to say. There's also some clunky symbolism at times - the swapping of a black leather jacket by Tsotsi for a white shirt in the final scenes, for example - that come across as the work of a film school graduate.
Having said this, Tsotsi isn't a bad film. For all it's inconsistencies and lack of logic, it provides an absorbing modern fable that leads the viewer to some sort of understanding of Tsotsi. Hood's direction is also good, and the cinematography first-class.
Ironically, it is in this respect that the film is at it's weakest. Tsotsi, the central character, makes decisions that are both illogical and irrational throughout the film, and while it's perfectly acceptable to argue that real people are always making irrational decisions, when it happens in a film it really doesn't work. After brutally gunning down a woman who's car he's attempting to steal, Tsotsi finds a baby in the back seat which he takes with him instead of abandoning it as you might expect him to.
The decision pretty much seals Tsotsi's fate, but not before we are shown the parallels he draws between his own deprived past and the opportunity of redemption looking after the baby offers him. It's something of a stretch, it has to be said and you get the impression that writer/director Gavin Hood - who has moved on to more mainstream Hollywood fare recently - only has a tenuous grip on what he's trying to say. There's also some clunky symbolism at times - the swapping of a black leather jacket by Tsotsi for a white shirt in the final scenes, for example - that come across as the work of a film school graduate.
Having said this, Tsotsi isn't a bad film. For all it's inconsistencies and lack of logic, it provides an absorbing modern fable that leads the viewer to some sort of understanding of Tsotsi. Hood's direction is also good, and the cinematography first-class.