Semi-Sweet [Semi-Soet] (**½)
Directed by: Joshua Rous
Starring: Anel Alexander, Nico Panagio, Sandra Vaughn, Louw Venter,
Diaan Lawrenson, Paul Du Toit, Corine Du Toit
Seen: March 19th 2012
**½
Out of ****
I am not a big fan of recent South African cinema, and to even see a
movie so obviously resembling a South African soap opera (which I can’t really
comment on either, as I don’t watch them) is quite a gamble. Semi-Sweet is, however,
a rather enjoyable if somewhat inconsequential little movie that mostly does
just enough to avert the attention from its misdirected moments.
Jaci (Alexander) works at the ad-agency Mojo under her trusting boss Denise
(Corine Du Toit). Her best friend Karla (Vaughn) works with her, and when they
hear of the possible corporate takeover of Mojo, they fear the worst, as the
guy targeting Mojo is known as The Jackal (quite a departure from previous
movies where The Jackal was a renowned terrorist, but I digress…), and he rips
companies apart as they are swallowed into his money churning machine. Mojo’s
last chance is to get one more big client to increase their market value for a
buy-out to not be viable. As luck would have it, just such an opportunity
presents itself in the form of the Vrede-en-Lust wine farm.
Vrede-en-Lust’s owner values family highly, and requires that its
ad-agency is represented by someone in a committed relationship. Jaci is single
but desperate to save her Mojo, so she contacts a model agency close-by to rent
a stand-in fiancé for her business pitch. What she doesn’t realise is that the
man who shows up at her office is none other than the Jackal, or JP (Panagio),
who finds her desperation amusing and plays along. The pitch turns out to be a
competition of sorts between Jaci and her (fake) fiancé JP, and Jaci’s
ex-boyfriend Markus (Paul Du Toit), who works for another ad-agency, and his
extremely blonde girlfriend Chadrie (Lawrenson). The pitches are inconclusive
to the farmer and he invites the two couples to his farm for a weekend of
relaxation before the final pitch. Jaci gets to take Karla along and JP, since
he is a “model”, gets to take along his assistant Hertjie (Venter), standing in
as his stylist.
This elaborate plot is merely the setup for the main part of the story
on the wine farm and the eventual big reveal to various oblivious characters as
the movie nears its ending. Semi-Sweet is amusing and at times rather funny,
and even though it doesn’t look as well polished as many American romantic
comedies do, it has more heart and more emotion than most of the stock standard
ones we get to see lately. This is a truly South African movie with a few
ridiculous moments and happenings in the background. Semi-Sweet is fun, and I
believe most South Africans will enjoy it if they only give it a chance.
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