80
Film Threat
The story of lust, love and betrayal intriguingly bemoans racism and prejudice of bygone times while peppering the “history” with more modern references.
Proteus
Critic Rating
(read reviews)User Rating
- Canada,
- South Africa
- 2003
- · 100m
Director
John Greyson
Cast
Rouxnet Brown,
Neil Sandilands,
Shaun Smyth,
Kristen Thomson,
Tessa Jubber,
Terry Norton
Genre
Drama,
History,
Romance
An exquisite period piece that skilfully explores the intersections of sex, race, and politics that take place in 18th century South Africa. The film tells the passionate and true story of two men—a black prisoner living in a Cape Town penal colony and a Dutch sailor—caught in an unjust system rife with racism, homophobia and cruelty.
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What are critics saying?
80
Film Threat by James Wegg
The story of lust, love and betrayal intriguingly bemoans racism and prejudice of bygone times while peppering the “history” with more modern references.
70
TV Guide Magazine by Ken Fox
This unusually rich film tackles not only the social structuring of criminality and sexuality but race as well, and explores the ways science has been used to justify the ruthless pursuit of market interests and, eventually, apartheid itself.
70
The A.V. Club by Tasha Robinson
Greyson does a terrifically empathetic job of putting viewers firmly in the moment, by making it irrelevant exactly when and where that moment takes place.
63
New York Daily News by Elizabeth Weitzman
John Greyson and Jack Lewis' experimental drama, about two prisoners who have a dangerous affair, is a challenging, flawed look at a little-known slice of history.
50
Los Angeles Times by Kevin Thomas
Proteus is involving and affecting even if it is not completely coherent or fully realized.
50
The Hollywood Reporter by Frank Scheck
Ultimately, the sex scenes seem of far more interest to the filmmakers than the narrative or characterizations, which are rendered in frustratingly vague and often deliberately confusing fashion.
50
Variety by Dennis Harvey
Proteus has enough erotic and exotic content to win back some of the arthouse viewers previously beguiled by Greyson's "Lilies." But pic lacks that gem's lush aesthetics and impassioned complexity, ending up a tad remote.
40
L.A. Weekly by Chuck Wilson
Proteus carries an air of forced-wit experimentation that never quite gets its anachronisms in order -- this 18th-century tale features a Jeep, a radio, and female court reporters with typewriters and bouffant hairdos.
38
New York Post by Lou Lumenick
This Canadian-South African labor of love has its heart in the right place, even if the leads seem to have been cast more for their hunky looks than their stiff acting.
30
The New York Times by Dave Kehr
Tricked up with an elaborate flashback structure, subtitled dialogue in three languages and as many gratuitous aesthetic touches as the traffic will bear, Proteus emerges as a heavy, pretentious and derivative film.
25
San Francisco Chronicle
Takes its name from the king protea, the national flower of South Africa. The stunning, artichoke-like shrub may be fragrant, but the movie's pretty much a stinker.
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