Sheet-y Saturday.

Where we take a look at posters for upcoming features.

Today we will see how one campaign can offer both the best and worst in graphic design. The image above is of course an example of the worst. Silly color palette, preposterous Photoshop-ing (where the hell is ScarJo coming from and why does she look like Kim Cattrall?) and one of those "universal" poses where all the characters look ahead into the distance. In this case they might just be trying to look away from the awful  background they were inserted into.

Now on the other side, we have the same marketing people come up with this beautiful, simple and ridiculously effective teaser. The colors are astonishingly beautiful and efficient, the idea of mixing the tree with the animal prints is superb and the little red kite adds a dash of melancholy. We know more about the movie with this poster, than with the hideous design before it.

Which of these posters give you more information about the movie?

Contagion ***½

Director: Steven Soderbergh

Cast: Marion Cotillard, Matt Damon, Laurence Fishburne, Jude Law

Gwyneth Paltrow, Kate Winslet, Jennifer Ehle, Elliot Gould

Sanaa Lathan, John Hawkes, Bryan Cranston

Contagion opens inside an airport bar where American businesswoman Beth Emhoff (Paltrow), on her way to the States from Hong Kong, sits having a drink and talking on the phone while she waits for a connecting flight. As she hears her flight number being called out she leaves the bar. The camera then focuses on the small bowl of peanuts that sat in front of her. A title card reading "Day 2" appears. With a seemingly innocuous choice of editing, camera positions and additional information (we don't get title cards in real life), Steven Soderbergh sends us down a spiral of fear, the likes of which we rarely see in contemporary cinema.

Once Beth is back in the States, she suddenly falls ill with a strange disease that sends her into a coma and kills her a mere minutes after the movie begins. With this bold move Soderbergh reassures us that for the next two hours, no one will be safe.
Contagion then deals with the discovery, propagation and consequences of this new lethal virus that is transmitted by contact and has no apparent cure. As the virus grows, we meet different characters who deal with it in their part of the world as society around them begins to crumble. Soderbergh also divides them into different aspects of our current world, without making them a too obvious "group". We see the emotional part with  Beth's husband, Mitch (Damon) for example, who has to deal with his wife's sudden death as he must survive in order to support his daughter.
There's also Dr.Ellis Cheever (Fishburne) of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, who tries to clear doubts that suggest the new virus might be a bioweapon by sending his colleague Dr. Erin Mears (Winslet) to investigate. Their stories are more related to bureaucracy and the handling of disasters by local governments which provide the film with eerie echoes of the H1N1 epidemic and the way in which the American government has dealt with events like Hurricane Katrina and the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
Their storylines are also linked to the scientific community represented by Gould, who plays a genius biology professor and Ehle, who plays Dr. Ally Hextall, a CDC scientist commissioned to find a vaccine.
As the story begins to occupy a more global aspect, we meet Dr. Leonora Orantes, a World Health Organization epidemiologist who is sent to Asia in search of "patient zero". Scenes involving her character are filled with an exotic dread in which we are reminded that despite the world's global union feeling, we are still pretty much on our own. Soderbergh makes her scenes scary and mystifying by recurring to the use of multiple languages which instill a very primal fear in audience members. Is he perhaps suggesting that xenophobia is acceptable under special circumstances?
Other characters include slimy conspiracy theorist/blogger Alan Krumwiede (Law), a down on his luck janitor (Hawkes) who finds himself in the midst of a disease which to him remains incurable due to his lack of money and Aubrey (Lathan), Dr. Cheevers partner who gets involved in a political disaster.
Soderbergh has proved in the past that he's a maverick at handling parallel storylines with unifying, often enlightening, clashes. But while in Traffic he did something a bit more orthodox in terms of dramatic structure, Contagion offers him the chance to do his own hybrid of Nashville and Outrbreak. Those expecting an ultimate message of salvation, or even a unifying climax will come out severely disappointed as Soderbergh makes a case of maintaining the pieces of his mosaic separated.
Their detachment might come off as cold-hearted by usual standards but Soderbergh sees himself as a scientist trying to dissect the various pieces of his experiment (an autopsy scene is done with such straightforwardness that you can't help but feel both revolted and mesmerized). He leaves it to his actors to create flashes of humanity within the hyper-realism of his direction. Cotillard for example brings a worldly charisma (and a serious working woman hairdo) to her scenes, while Ehle becomes a joy to watch as she puts all of her Streep-ian attributes to work as she delights herself with her work discoveries.
Paltrow, who the film sometimes uses as a morality clause, is haunting, as she represents the face of an irresponsible (if only by ignorance) branch of American society and Winslet delivers one of the year's most powerful emotional punches in less than ten scenes.
His insistence to keep the stories from coming together has a remarkable symbolism because we realize that he's trying to contain infection from seeping to his other characters. By maintaining them apart, Soderbergh might be making the film's strongest point which is a questioning of the benefits of globalization.
This is confirmed in the finale which might be a bit facile but still shocks us to our very core by reminding us that by trying to make the world a smaller place, we have also made its decay much easier to obtain. With his expert use of editing, cinematography and sound (there are scenes without dialogues that creep under your skin) Soderbergh creates the kind of movie that transcends genre but becomes effective even within them. The film is scary because it feels possible and its use of scientific fact and borrowing from contemporary history only makes it more valid.
Martin Scorsese said that horror is related to physicality but terror is more related to what we feel, with Contagion Soderbergh might've created one of the most terrifying films of the decade.

Sick!

I am dying to see this movie, pardon the pun and I discussed the trailer over at The Film Experience, so go check it out!

The Adjustment Bureau ***

Director: George Nolfi

Cast: Matt Damon, Emily Blunt

John Slattery, Terence Stamp, Anthony Mackie, Michael Kelly

Based on a short story by Philip K. Dick, The Adjustment Bureau deals with fate and the forces that shape our every day lives. The film doesn't question the existence of a godlike figure, it establishes there is one (interesting touch for sci-fi) and instead focuses on the bureaucratic processes that said entity uses to maintain order in his plan.

The title bureau in this case consists of men (apparently the heavens have no gender equality programs) dressed in perfect suits and fedoras who are able to freeze time and like race-car mechanics, polish, clean and fix the unaware people who then just keep on living.

No human is ever supposed to see this and the bureau makes sure of that, until one day New York Congressman David Norris (Damon) accidentally runs into one of their interventions. He is warned that if he ever speaks about what he saw, they'll reboot his brain, but worse than that, they forbid him from pursuing the love of Elise Sellas (Blunt) an eccentric dancer he met recently. The film then makes a fascinating turn: instead of becoming a flat out sci-fi thriller, it shifts into a breathtakingly romantic study of humanity's need to explain love.

Sure, the way in which Nolfi bends Dick's story to fulfill his romantic agenda might seem off-putting to some who want their sci-fi to be more cerebral and less sentimental, but the way in which the story is told, without any stylistic frills (despite the genre) makes for a purely classic film aesthetic.

It feels like watching an interpretation of timeless pieces like Love Story or Casablanca, with a twist, yet like the romance movies that endure the test of time, the added genre details aren't necessary to fulfill the film's larger theme.

If you took the sci-fi out of The Adjustment Bureau, you'd still have a wonderful movie, this can't be said of recent films in its vein like Inception, which only dreams it could've mustered the humanity Nolfi injects into this one.

Most of the film's success is owed to Damon and especially Blunt, who achieve a delicious screen chemistry. All throughout the movie you want them to be together and this helps make the audience an accomplice, giving the film a distinctive participatory feeling. Damon squeezes the hell out of his good looks and Blunt is seductively ethereal. Few times in recent films have two leads had the intense chemistry these two have. You really leave The Adjustment Bureau wishing you could follow these two characters for years.

Short Takes: "Love and Other Drugs" and "Hereafter".

More than the "Anne Hathaway and Jake Gyllenhall Naked Variety Show", this movie is a sadly overdone ode to complicated love. Sure, Anne and Jake are naked a lot and as good a marketing angle as that might've been, the truth is that they are remarkable not because of their bubble butts and perfect stomachs but because of the nakedness of their performances (corny to say it but true...).

Gyllenhaal plays womanizing Pfizer medical representative Jamie. Hathaway plays Maggie, the cynical, early onset Parkinson's disease, patient he falls for.

They try to make it all about sex but movie conventions have showed us that before soon they'll be entangled in some messy emotional issues.

When this happens the movie gives its lead actors a chance to shine, the rest however is a confused mess that makes it seem as if the editor and the director were on some weird emotion altering pill.

The film alternates between moods in such an uneven way that it's impossible for the filmmakers to say they were doing a cute postmodernist take on the drug experience through editing. The whole thing is jut muddled filmmaking.

It's nice then to see Gyllenhaal stretching his limited chops to explore a more aggressive character, someone unafraid to come off as a total jerk and win our hearts by the end (George Clooney would've played him in the 90's...).

And it obviously comes as no surprise that Anne Hathaway is all sorts of magnificent. The little things she gives Maggie are stunningly detailed without being show-offs. She could've played this woman with pity and gone over the top to deliver her message, however she does quite the opposite and slowly lets Maggie become who she is.

Watching Hathaway go from sexiness to raw pain is the one truly addictive thing about this movie.

Clint Eastwood has got to be one of the most overrated working directors, yet at the same time some of his films are so subtle and misunderstood that he seems to be slightly underrated.

Such is the case with Hereafter, a haunting romantic drama that fails to ignite the tragic passion The Bridges of Madison County did but is still able to steer off the preachy stubbornness of Changeling.

The script (written by Peter Morgan) seems to be getting its line from the Iñárritu school of "connecting random dots to achieve universal catharsis" and as such, we see how the lives of former psychic George (Damon), French tsunami survivor Marie (de France) and British boy Marcus (Frankie McLaren) are united by death and then brought together by the magic of the movies.

Eastwood however directs taking his cue from the school of Clint and turns the film into a meditative examination of life in times of chaos. Hereafter takes its time to make its point but it's never a slow movie. In fact Clint plays with the story so well that for a moment we doubt it's leading to the place where it eventually takes us to.

This makes it a curious experiment and the film often feels as moody as the characters are tragic. Damon gives a superbly restrained performance but the film perhaps belongs to the stunning de France. Her bittersweet portrayal of Marie is infused with a cruel tenderness that gives her such rich layers. Her story is often at risk of becoming the most convoluted and corny, yet she handles it with such class that you really don't care when the movie tries to turn her into a paperback romance heroine.

The ending of Hereafter might turn off some who feel Clint's gone senile, surrendered to love and just teased us for 130 minutes with the promise of turning on his darkness and delivering one of his intense takes on justice.

However those willing to look past the sensationalism the movie deals with, will be rewarded with a heartbreaking tale that tells us to stop worrying about what's to come when all we really have is today.

Love and Other Drugs **

Hereafter ***

Sheet-y Saturday.

Where we take a look at posters for upcoming features.

I really don't care how many more times they rip off the Michael Clayton poster if the results keep coming up this good!

I really wasn't too excited about this movie but this poster changed my mind. Bring me some Matt and Em ASAP!

Just how amazing is this poster for Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives?

How on Earth do such beauties get greenlit in this world of floating heads and shitty Photoshop is beyond me but I am all the more happy for it.

This poster was done by Chris Ware (who gave us that lovely illustrated one sheet for The Savages a few years ago), someone should make him head of marketing at a studio...

What do you think of these?

True Grit ***

Director: Ethan Coen, Joel Coen

Cast: Jeff Bridges, Matt Damon, Josh Brolin

Barry Pepper, Dakin Matthews, Hailee Steinfeld

The Coen brothers, beacons of sophisticatedly dark humor and bleak existentialism deliver a no-frills, straightforward genre pic with True Grit, a new film adaptation of the novel by Charles Portis.

Grit centers on the story of Mattie Ross (Steinfeld) a fourteen year old girl who sets on the mission to avenge her father's dead at the hand of outlaw Tom Chaney (Brolin).

Based on recommendations around town she hires U.S. Marshal Rooster Cogburn (Bridges) as her personal tracker.

She sets off into dangerous Indian territory with Cogburn and Texas Ranger La Beouf (Damon9 who's also after Chaney.

This sets the stage for what can only be called an old fashioned Western. The film offers nothing new (except maybe some optimism from the Coens) but it's such a well told story that you can't help but think this is what fireside tales of old must've been imagined like.

The brothers show technical mastery and their every choice seems perfect just as it is. Once more teaming up with the extraordinary cinematographer Roger Deakins, they create a Wild West that's as dreamlike as it's realistic.
Deakins' camera indulges itself with vistas that go as far as the eye can see and strange camera angles that work despite their affectedness.

But fear not, this doesn't mean the film is completely devoid of the Coens' touches. Now and then they let their surrealistic touches go away with them and expertly weave them into the larger, more mainstream scheme of the plot.
In one of the film's most haunting scenes we see a bear riding a horse during a storm (you'll have to see this to believe it) and during the film's climax the Coens seem to have been possessed by the spirit of John Ford in a thrilling shootout.

Perhaps what makes the film feel more Coen-like are the performances. Bridges is outstanding as Cogburn, this man must be the only actor who can don an eye patch, look completely disheveled, deliver his lines with a mumble and still make it seem like the most natural thing on the planet.

Watch him epitomize coolness, yes, despite the eye patch, when everytime he moves, his coat flows and evokes a superhero's cape.

Damon and Brolin don't have much to do but they are steady supporting performers. Brolin is particularly good in the few scenes he has, completely owning the cowardly viciousness of Chaney.

Steinfeld gives a performance that's wiser beyond her years (this is her screen debut!) and she holds up beautifully against Bridges. She develops a lovely chemistry with him and by film's end, this becomes so deep that it even transcends the boundaries of different actors playing the same role (Elizabeth Marvel plays an older Mattie and it feels as if it's Steinfeld with makeup on).

True Grit may not be particularly profound in the way the Coens have used us to, it could be said in fact that if this wasn't directed by them it would surely seem more majestic.

But as an exercise in how to make a movie in the classic studio way, it feels just fine, it's also way more entertaining that it has any right to be. With the Coens flourish for quirky dialogs and melancholy it's refreshing to see how they can inject some new blood into a genre that's been pronounced dead more times than any other.

Sheet-y Saturday.

Where we take a look at posters for upcoming features.

Considering I'm one of the few people alive who think Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie are not the most beautiful people alive, this poster makes me want to ask all of you who do, what exactly makes them so appealing?
This poster is so terribly done that it seems they aren't even in the movie together and someone made this to try out their very basic Photoshop skills.


This is how you do a teaser. Text posters used to be huge once and now everyone has become so dependent on the movie star that they have forgotten how to actually work hard to get a message across.
Notice how the font makes a statement about the setting, time and mood of the film while that bullet hole and blood are a thing of genius. Best of all? We don't get stuck with an annoying "Academy Award Winne Jeff Bridges" sort of crap.
Also that "retribution" label at the bottom is wickedly delicious. Just got excited about this movie!

What do you guys think about these?

Sheet-y Saturday.

Where we take a look at posters for upcoming features.


The upper half of this poster is a thing of beauty. Simple illustrations to make a powerful point.
The lower half is a mess though. Not only is it a total ripoff of things that have been done better before but the images and credits are so conflicting.
For starters the movie is called Company Men, emphasis in "men", yet we have the awesome Maria Bello right in the middle of that testosterone party looking all lost and confused.
What's weird isn't that the lack of her name among the credits makes this seem like some misogynist Neil Labute experiment but that once you realize she's the only one in that group who doesn't have an Oscar (or a goddamn nomination for starters!) makes it all seem more unfair and just plain bad.


This movie is honestly making me think of this too much.
But just how cute was Matt Damon in the 30 Rock season premiere?

Interested in either of these movies?
Also I just realized this edition of Sheet-y Saturday paired Ben and Matt, I promise it was totally unintentional.

Don't Forget!

The season finale of 30 Rock tonight! With guest star Matt Damon!!!!!
No, NBC doesn't pay me.

Golden Globe Predictions.

If the Hollywood Foreign Press Association serves a purpose it's to deliver the wackiest awards show on the planet. This year, more than any other, they might just go ahead and also have one of their most surprising ceremonies, with several film categories literally up in the air.

People don't give the HFPA the credit they deserve and forget that unlike the Academy they aren't afraid to go for the edgiest choices from time to time and as much starfucking as they do, they actually deliver the acting awards to the best performances.
This year they will give their prestigious Cecil B. de Mille Award to the incomparable Martin Scorsese (who just last year handed it out to Steven Spielberg), let's keep in mind that the HFPA gave Marty their Best Director award twice and before the Academy.
So maybe they're not all about champagne, crassness and cursing. Maybe they're on to something.

Best Motion Picture (Drama)

Will win: "Avatar"
Should win: "The Hurt Locker"

"Up in the Air" might be the movie going in with the most nominations, but "Avatar" is all the rage right now. The Globes were one of the first to reward "Titanic" twelve years ago when "L.A. Confidential" was sweeping everything and whenever they have the opportunity to reward something epic, over something small they will usually choose that road.
It would be incredible to see them give their top award to "The Hurt Locker", but after last year's love for the slumdog, they might want to get back to being all Hollywood.

Best Motion Picture (Comedy or Musical)

Will win: "Nine"

Should win: "(500) Days of Summer"

Truth be told, their lineup in this category isn't so good. It's filled with average to good movies without a single truly outstanding thing in the mix. Sure "Julie & Julia" was fun, but is it really Best Picture material?
"Nine" stands as the second most nominated film this year and the HFPA loves musicals and stars, but the real shame here is that they went AMPAS' way and threw all the animated films to their own category. If they hadn't sent them to the ghetto, "Up" would've had this one in the bag and with reason, it's among the best films of the decade.

Best Director Motion Picture

Will win: Kathryn Bigelow "The Hurt Locker"
Should win: Kathryn Bigelow "The Hurt Locker"

The Globes already rewarded a woman in this category, so they have that whole "let's make history" thing out of their minds. So here they will perhaps establish one of those splits awards have become so fond of. Bigelow's film was the most taut thriller of the year and the best movie about the Iraq invasion released so far. James Cameron will have to sit down and applaud as his ex-wife begins her steady march towards Oscar.
Oh and that nomination for Clint Eastwood is a joke.

Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture (Drama)

Will win: Jeff Bridges "Crazy Heart"
Should win: N/A

As much as the Globes love George Clooney, they will not resist rewarding a man who epitomized cool decades before Clooney came to notoriety. The fact that they nominated Tobey Maguire for "Brothers" should be enough for them to make up by giving the award to someone who actually has been mastering the craft for decades.
If not for all of this, maybe they will realize that Clooney having two acting Globes already is way too much already...

Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture (Drama)

Will win: Carey Mulligan "An Education"
Should win: Carey Mulligan "An Education"

Maybe I'm just trying to convince myself that Sandra Bullock's bizarre win in the Critics Choice Awards was a freaky accident that had Mulligan and Gabourey Sidibe split each other's votes or maybe the HFPA will choose the best performance in the category.
If Mulligan has an advantage is that she doesn't have to compete with Meryl Streep here and that the Globes love the British ingenue more than the rest (last year's win for Sally Hawkins was extraordinary!) and again that she's the best in the category (I love Emily Blunt but I'll never understand what she's doing here over Abbie Cornish, yes I will bring up Cornish in everything Best Actress related this season).
Oh boy, but what if Mulligan and Sidibe split their votes all over and Bullock emerges winner?

Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture (Musical or Comedy)
Will win: Joseph Gordon-Levitt "(500) Days of Summer"
Should win: Joseph Gordon-Levitt "(500) Days of Summer"

It's been settled that everyone pretty much hates "Nine", so a win for Daniel Day Lewis here would be strange (especially because critics pretty much think he's the weakest link in the movie). A hunch tells me they might want to reward Matt Damon in "The Informant!" just so that he won't go home empty handed (he won't win Supporting...) but if something the Globes love more than the rest are the pretty boys delivering superb performances.
If Jonathan Rhys Meyers and James Franco are Golden Globe winners, how can they not love Joseph Gordon-Levitt's delightful turn in "(500) Days of Summer"?
I expect him to be the kind of slight shocker Colin Farrell was last year, even if his win totally makes sense.

Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture (Musical or Comedy)
Will win: Meryl Streep "Julie & Julia"
Should win: Meryl Streep "Julie & Julia"

Come on they probably engraved her name in the award the day after the movie came out.

Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture

Will win: Christoph Waltz "Inglourious Basterds"
Should win: Christoph Waltz "Inglourious Basterds"

It's a shame that poor Christopher Plummer is getting nominated for awards for the first time in his entire career because he has almost no chance to win any facing the juggernaut that is Waltz. The HFPA won't merely be following in the footsteps of Cannes and the critics' awards, they will also be reminding people that they are above all an international committee seeking to reward the best from wherever in the world they are.
And yes, Waltz was brilliant.

Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture
Will win: Mo'Nique "Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire"
Should win: Mo'Nique "Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire"

I will never understand what everyone sees in those "Up in the Air" female performances and as much as I would love for Penélope Cruz to finally win a Globe if she lost for what have been her two greatest performances she won't be winning for "Nine" (HFPA unlike AMPAS doesn't really go for the whole "should've won last year so let's reward them now" policy).
Mo'nique delivered a stunner of a performance and she has a pretty clear path up til Oscar. The only question that remains is will she show up or not.

Best Animated Feature Film
Will win: "Up"
Should win: "Up"

It's ironic that the animated feature film lineup makes for a much more satisfying array of nominees than that whole Best Picture Comedy or Musical category.

Best Foreign Language Film
Will win: "The White Ribbon"
Should win: A case could be made for all the nominees.

HFPA has shown they love gritty in this category and a win for "A Prophet" wouldn't be a complete shocker. They have proved they love their legendary auteurs which is why Michael Haneke's stunning "The White Ribbon" seems like it could get it.
They adore Almodóvar, but maybe he's won too many times and "Broken Embraces" didn't have the appeal his previous films did awards wise.
And Chile's "The Maid" was such a surprising picture that they could want to reward it for the freshness factor.
I say Haneke's film wins here by a very slight margin.

Best Screenplay Motion Picture
Will win: Quentin Tarantino "Inglourious Basterds"
Should win: Quentin Tarantino "Inglourious Basterds"

Best Original Score Motion Picture
Will win: Michael Giacchino "Up"
Should win: Michael Giacchino "Up"

Best Original Song Motion Picture
Will win: "The Weary Kind (Theme From Crazy Heart)" – "Crazy Heart"
Music & Lyrics By: Ryan Bingham and T Bone Burnett
Should win: N/A

Over at the TV side I'm predicting "Mad Men" and "Glee" to get the series awards (they love fresh but "30 Rock" should definitely be winning again) and Alec Baldwin, Toni Collette, Jon Hamm and Glenn close to get the lead acting awards.
"Grey Gardens" will obviously win the Made for TV Movie/Miniseries awards but I'll go on a limb here and predict Jessica Lange loses Best Actress to Drew Barrymore who will no doubt deliver the night's cutest speech.
I also say Jane Lynch wins Supporting Actress for "Glee" and Neil Patrick Harris gets the one Emmy stole from him.

The Golden Globes air Sunday Jan. 17 on NBC.

Invictus **

Director: Clint Eastwood
Cast: Morgan Freeman, Matt Damon
Adjoa Andoh, McNiel Hendriks, Scott Eastwood, Julian Lewis Jones

The reason to revisit history is usually to learn something from it or to examine it with a critical eye. Clint Eastwood's reason in "Invictus" is merely to recreate and reduce it to a simplistic, almost fablesque succession of events featuring important people.
The film centers on Nelson Mandela's (Freeman) attempt to end post apartheid tensions by uniting South Africa through its rugby team, the Springboks, and most specifically by crowning them champions of the 1995 World Cup.
When the film begins Mandela has just been released from prison and wins the presidential election. He takes over a country still divided by racial differences and asks Springboks captain Francois Pienaar (Damon) to win the championship.
Apparently all it took for the team to succeed was Mandela's request because then they go on a winning streak as they become loved by both white and black audiences.
Eastwood doesn't care in exploring the use of sports as a way for political manipulation; were the Springboks cause or consequence of the divisions? And if so how did they exactly make people who had hated them, represent their country?
The film has no regards for subtleties and the main arc is exemplified in the fact that when the movie begins black and white people play different sports divided by a road and when the film ends they're hugging each other and cheering.
If Eastwood doesn't care for historical complexities he does a much worse job encompassing what the people represented.
Mandela as played by Freeman is a copy of what the political figure seems to be on television, but he lacks the depth to become a credible human figure.
The Mandela in "Invictus" is a fictional creation that exists only for the purpose of delivering a unifying message to help the plot move forward.
Eastwood makes him a combination of a saint and Yoda who delivers grandiose lines like "forgiveness liberates the soul" in the most awkward situations.
There's also an element of extreme fantasy as Eastwood expects us to see Mandela leaving a government meeting to hear match results as something inspiring and not irresponsible.
History made sure that Mandela's tactics aren't disputed, but the film lacks dramatic responsibility because we never really expect the result to eb anything other than victory. Not only because Eastwood trivializes and patronizes history, but because we can't fathom Mandela as someone who would leave the entire fate of his country on a rugby match.
For him to become one of the most important figures of the twentieth century he at least had to have a plan B right?