TSOTSI

A teenage thug finds redemption after being forced into a weird parental role. I didn't buy it.

When a film wins an Oscar, especially the perfectly respectable Best Foreign Language Film award, I have certain expectations. Past winners have included such films as Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Life Is Beautiful, and All About My Mother. I expected Tsotsi to be good, if not great. But I didn't expect it to mediocre. I left the theater with a furrowed brow, afraid to tell my friend that I was disappointed, and surprisingly underwhelmed.

Presley Chweneyagae plays the title character of Tsotsi—slang for "thug"—and is indeed just that. He and his posse lurk around like panthers, lying in wait to pounce on their latest victim. The opening scene is powerfully creepy, as Tsotsi and his gang target a mark in a train station, follow him into a crowded subway car, and proceed to discreetly rob and stab the man with an ice pick—all while standing shoulder to shoulder with other passengers. I thought the movie was off to a good, if not extremely disturbing start.

The murder of their target does not sit well with all the guys in the gang, and one fellow, Boston, confronts Tsotsi on the unnecessary kill. Well, Tsotsi, who has the babyface of a teen, but the eyes of a killer, proceeds to beat the pulp out of Boston for even questioning his judgement. In fact Tsotsi is so riled up and pissed off that he runs out into the night, stalks and shoots an upper-class woman and steals her BMW. It doesn't take him long to realize his is in deeper trouble than he realized when he discovers the woman's baby in the back of the car.

Now this is where Tsotsi turns weird. The introduction of the infant into the story is supposedly a catalyst to show the thawing of this young man's heart, as he begrudgingly takes the kid back to his ramshackle hut in the Johannesburg township. There are some uncomfortably out of place Three Men and a Baby-type moments as out-of-his-element Tsotsi makes some bumbling diaper-changing attempts and baby-feedings. This psuedo-comedy comes so abruptly after the violence that I was left a little queasy and uncomfortable at the quick juxtaposition. Ha ha, look at the thug try to take care of an adorable child that's not his. Whom he kidnapped. Whose mother he just shot. Huh.

The film gets more perplexing when Tsotsi forces a young mother by gunpoint to breastfeed his new charge. As the story develops, he comes to depend on her, and we are led to believe they form some sort of connection (love?!?!?). After all, he came from an abusive home where his father was heartless and his mom died of AIDS. Which I guess young Miriam can sense from Tsotsi's blank expression and minimal conversation. Yeah, whatever.

By the time the movie comes to its predictable ending, I had tired of it. The cops finally, inevitably catch up to Tsotsi and by then he is supposedly a changed man. As a lifetime of tears ran down Tsotsi's face, I found myself completely unmoved by this weirdly formulaic movie (and remember, I'm one who can bawl after seeing a sad 30-second commercial). Maybe it felt slight because it was based on a short story by Athol Fugard. But more likely, it just felt so literal without much believable flair for storytelling. I just didn't buy it.