Movie Review: Jewel
One-liner: while promising, this contrived, over-ambitious and rushed drama scatters powerful themes and an inspired cast.
Jewel is a drama from writer-director Adze Ugah, which centres on Tyra a seasoned photographer who visits the Sharpeville massacre memorial in South Africa. On a tour of the township, she finds herself drawn to local woman Siya, an attraction that causes a rift among locals as painful memories of a shared past are rekindled.
It seems the township of Sharpeville will forever be connected to the massacre of 69 South Africans, who were gunned down in a hail of police bullets during a pass protest. Remembered on Human Rights Day, the atrocity still echoes today, brought back to startling reality by a similar incident in Marikana. Jewel dives into this tragic space around the fallout, prejudice and splintering devastation of this event that remains to this day.
While Tyra exorcises some of her own demons in returning to this place of heartbreak, her journey of catharsis ventures into unlikely romance as the photographer befriends and falls for promising young local woman, Siya. Jewel stirs up a number of themes that while local to Sharpeville have a broader social context against the backdrop of Apartheid. Forgiveness, memory and generational pain become some of the pillars of this thoughtful drama as the story intertwines romance and crime.
The film stars Michelle Botes (Isidingo, Legacy) as Tyra opposite Nqobile Khumalo (Soul City, Scandal!) as Siya. While Botes is best known for her recurring soap roles, she’s not out of place as the lead in Jewel, taking on a brave and challenging performance as a woman trying to overcome her own psychological trauma. Khumalo is a go-between as Siya with her possessive boyfriend trying to keep her locked in the past and her budding romance representing a new chapter.
Botes is an inspired casting call that mostly pays off as Tyra, creating some curious power dynamics being a complete opposite in almost every respect to Siya. While the major age gap between Botes and Khumalo jars any way you look at it, Jewel’s poetic and surreal edge helps diffuse the 30-year age difference. While it’s not properly established or addressed by supporting characters, perhaps both actors were cast to play characters with a more closely aligned age. Unfortunately, a lack of authenticity and chemistry pervades this central relationship, making it seem contrived in spite of noble efforts.
“A tour guide you say?”
One of the highlights of this drama is its experienced and stellar local cast, including: Lillian Dube, Desmond Dube, Robert Whitehead and Connie Chiume. Echoing Botes, it’s wonderful to see a few recognisable faces from across the local film landscape with the pick of the actors being Lillian Dube as Gogo. A soulful turn, navigating the emotion and tragedy from an aerial view with a fatalistic outlook, Dube captures her character’s essence with a few close-ups. While Desmond Dube and Robert Whitehead’s presence is welcome, their fleeting characters don’t really seem to have much effect on the story. Connie Chiume adds gravity as a representative of the metaphorical river, a recurring symbol for faith and healing in Jewel.
Jewel starts with great promise and some flair, using its location and characters to set up a story of emotional depth and political heft. The ensemble do their bit to anchor their characters in this setting, which is swathed by thoughtful cinematography and the introduction of a shared memory paradigm. However, as surefooted as it starts, Jewel begins to stumble as muddled storytelling and heavy-handed scenes begin to undermine the overarching vision. While shot in the key of Sharpeville, the memorial becomes more of a symbolic backdrop than an investigative subject, anchored by a recurring yet rather simplistic dream sequence.
Jewel ultimately becomes over-ambitious and scattershot, losing its focus and complicating matters in trying to effect its transcendental undercurrent. Starting as a character portrait, the influx of an opposites-attract romance and criminal intent only complicate matters. Trying to keep all of these storylines in the air, Jewel loses some of its nuance, leading to a few contrived turning points that could have used a more elegant touch. While its strong contrasts and rich themes empower the storytelling and give it a natural subtext worth mining, the overriding action and character play becomes somewhat panicked.
While filled with promise, featuring an experienced cast, a powder keg setting and some provocative themes, this drama becomes bungled and messy. Jewel clambers to its resolution in such haste that it has no choice but to shed substance by way of character complexity, powerful messaging and evocative themes in order to lighten the load. As far as entertainment, it’s far from unwatchable but does stretch to breaking point with its often contrived and rushed feel.
The bottom line: Messy
