DISGRACE

Dissolute literature prof David Lurie (John Malkovich) has a taste for young African women, which gets him sacked from his Cape Town uni. He visits his adult daughter Lucy (Jessica Haines) in a remote part of the countryside and those who have read J. M. Coetzee’s prize-winning novel will know the horrors which await. A violent home invasion by three black youths leaves both father and daughter emotionally wrecked. What follows is a confronting meditation on class, sex, race, South Africa’s tragic past and troubled present, and the performances are just astonishing. Steve Jacobs’ has made a very accomplished adaption, but like the book, it feels cold and remote. Perhaps it’s just too hard to feel empathy for such an unlikeable central character. (RJE)