THE JAKES ARE MISSING
DIRECTORS: Neil Sundstrom and Dennis Y Miller
CAST: Mampho Brescia, Pope Jerrod, Nomzamo Mbatho, Mpho Sebeng, Jody Abrahams
CLASSIFICATION: PG
RUNNING TIME: 91 minutes
RATING: 3 stars (out of 5)
Theresa Smith
A local romance with two beautiful black people in the lead – time to stop complaining about all those Afrikaner rom-coms. This means variety has arrived, people. Or not.
Donald (Jerrod) and Janice (Brescia) Jakes are living the life in their mansion, but are living right past each other.
When their teenaged son, Simon (Sebeng), witnesses a crime, they are placed into the local version of witness protection, which means getting stashed in a tiny dorpie with the local dominee to watch over them.
Simon gets involved with a gospel group, but this is no sing- off – it’s all polite, sweet and churchly – while (architect) dad tries to design a town attraction.
Of course Simon falls for the dominee’s daughter, of course the women in the village go gaga for handsome Donald, and of course the shallow Janice rubs up the locals the wrong way. There is a lot of “of course” to this script – you can see which way the storyline is going. It is going the same way as countless witness protection films of the same ilk that Hollywood churns out.
Luckily, The Jakes are Missing has on its side a gorgeous little town that, while familiar to South Africans, is nonetheless very sweet and the kind of place where people want to live for its perceived safety and friendliness of its denizens.
When the bad guys come looking for the Jakes, Abrahams (as lead bad guy, Fred) does have a funny moment so the film turns out a bit more comedy than drama.
The film is not an action movie at all, it’s more about the romance between Donald and Janice. Brescia and Jerrod look like a lovely couple, but the script only gives them so many stereotypes to work with. Janice learns the error of her ways, while Donald forgives her. When their relationship is at the lowest point and the dirty secrets are coming out, they stay civilised and level-headed.
Everything about the film is smooth and level and designed to appeal on the broadest possible level – the town skinner-bekke consist of one black woman, one white woman and one coloured woman, all inappropriately dressed for a klein dorpie to add to the mirth. It’s like being killed by kindness… by committee.
The Jakes are Missing says about Neil Sund-strom and Dennis Y Miller that they can present a story which will be logical, but we don’t learn anything about how they perceive life, other than if it is in a klein dorpie, it means rainbow nation with pie and smooth American gospel.
If you liked Semi Soet or Strikdas, you will like this.