Holden visits his child, Franklin, and his ex wife, Capucine, who is now married to Howard, manager of a government game preserve in Africa.
The cast and crew are fine, but there's a problem with the script, at least for me. It's much like a story for children. And the viewer is treated as a groundling. Capucine is driving Holden across the veldt and exclaims, "Oh, look!" And there's a shot of warthogs. Near the beginning we also see lots of elephants, lions lunching on a zebra, hippopotamae, dik diks, baboons, and a tiny monkey who nuzzled up to Holden's nose and chirps. Later we get to know "King," a really massive male lion who is Franklin's pet.
Please.
Movies about Africa don't HAVE to be this way. Think of "African Rose," for instance, where there were only glimpses of crocs and the greatest menace was Gordon's gin and clouds of insects.
I couldn't bring myself to watch it through to the end. Perhaps it improves, even if only to become an improved children's story.
At any rate the acting can't be faulted. Holden isn't given much to do. Capucine is exquisite, elegant from top to bottom. And Pamela Franklin is fey and has an impish smile. In another five years or so, she would become less elfin and more -- more -- something else.
The cast and crew are fine, but there's a problem with the script, at least for me. It's much like a story for children. And the viewer is treated as a groundling. Capucine is driving Holden across the veldt and exclaims, "Oh, look!" And there's a shot of warthogs. Near the beginning we also see lots of elephants, lions lunching on a zebra, hippopotamae, dik diks, baboons, and a tiny monkey who nuzzled up to Holden's nose and chirps. Later we get to know "King," a really massive male lion who is Franklin's pet.
Please.
Movies about Africa don't HAVE to be this way. Think of "African Rose," for instance, where there were only glimpses of crocs and the greatest menace was Gordon's gin and clouds of insects.
I couldn't bring myself to watch it through to the end. Perhaps it improves, even if only to become an improved children's story.
At any rate the acting can't be faulted. Holden isn't given much to do. Capucine is exquisite, elegant from top to bottom. And Pamela Franklin is fey and has an impish smile. In another five years or so, she would become less elfin and more -- more -- something else.