SY KLINK SOOS LENTE
DIRECTOR: Corne van Rooyen
CAST: Stiaan Smith, Amalia Uys, James Cunningham, Bouwer Bosch, Wilson Dunster, Darren Kelfkens
CLASSIFICATION: 10-12 PG L
RUNNING TIME: 89 minutes
RATING: 3 stars (out of 5)
THERESA SMITH
A PLEASANT surprise, Sy Klink Soos Lente is less rom-com and more character sketch. While structured around a cliched rom-com idea – boy meets girl and lies about himself to impress her, but then has to follow through – the surprise is that the main character’s story arc is believable, while the lack of chemistry makes the putative relationship less so.
Ben (Smith) is an unambitious mechanic with a hidden ambition to make music. He strikes up a conversation with a lady in a bar one night and the two quickly proceed to Facebook flirting and then dating in the real world. Ben knows from the get-go that Linda (Uys) is his boss’s daughter and his co-workers make it their business to help along the budding relationship, making for some comic moments.
Linda simply thinks Ben is a guy in a band and he goes to a lot of trouble to reinforce the idea, starting a band with two work friends. Once Linda figures out the truth, she drops Ben and this is where it gets interesting because he has to figure out what he is prepared to fight for.
Smith creates a charming, unassuming, care-free, drily funny character so you see why Linda is attracted to him, but you don’t quite see why he likes her, other than the fact that everyone agrees she is pretty. The film starts with some appalling, stereotypically misogynistic behaviour from the guys at Linda’s workplace and you understand her initial stand-offish demeanour, but Uys never gives us a glimpse beneath the carefully cultivated, blandly vanilla persona of Linda.
Linda does broach the subject of her loneliness, as all her friends pair off, with her father (Kelfkens), whom everyone refers to as Kaptein – but then this idea is left dangling in the wind, as she moves on. Bosch pops up as Ben’s nebbish friend, who is desperate to join the fictitious band for a creative outlet that isn’t wrapped up in his family life.
Then there’s uptight Ryan (Cunningham), the mechanic pool’s awkward manager who just doesn’t fit in and Oom Fanie (Dunster), who turns out to be a total rocker at heart.Each of the male characters get some sort of arc and by the end of the movie, they are just a little richer for having learnt something about themselves. But poor Linda remains a cypher, just an object of affection to be attained.
If you liked Vrou Soek Boer, you will like this.