iNumber Number | 2013 TIFF Review

I Think I Got Yours: Marsh’s Latest a Simple Heist Thriller

Considering its locale, its budget, and enjoyably committed performances, South African filmmaker Donovan Marsh’s latest film, iNumber Number is no minor feat. But despite the pleasures of maintaining the realistic ambiance of a complicated heist gone wrong, the unfolding events are tiredly familiar and even with a slim running time groans inescapably and inevitably to a hopeful finale of second chance redemption.

Chili (S’dumo Mtshali) and Shoes (Presley Cheweneyagae) have been partners and undercover agents in the police force for the past eight years. After making a risky and complicated arrest on a case they’d been working for the past two years, the duo is denied their reward by a corrupt supervisor that tries to blackmail them into destroying evidence against a high profile perpetrator accused of raping two young girls. Enraged and tired of always being the good guys that finish last, Chili goes into his own undercover operation infiltrating a group of armored car thieves, his goal now to get a piece of a pie he thinks he deserves. Shoes is adamantly against Chili’s plan, but when it turns out that one of the thieves, Skroef (Israel Makoe), potentially recognizes Chili from a bust three years back, Shoes is dispatched to arrest the informant before he can finger Chili. This plan goes awry when Shoes bungles the arrest and instead gets abducted by the gang, further jeopardizing the undercover Chili because now group leader Membane (Owen Sekaje) is sure that there’s an informant in his group and waffles between executing Shoes and holding him hostage. Despite the possibility of the heist being compromised, Membane moves forward with their plan to rob an armored car, though the results aren’t what anyone expected.

Dirty cops, armored cars, vicious thieves and the best laid plans of men gone chaotically awry are signature tropes of nearly every heist scenario put to celluloid. So there’s hardly any moment of narrative surprise to be had, even if Marsh and crew do manage to ratchet up tension nicely at the capture of Shoes. On a more positive note, committed performances imbue the proceedings with a much needed sense of realism, even if we don’t understand much about Shoes and Chili other than their motivation for exploring the possibility of acquiring funds on the other side of the law.

Snippets of energetic flair do pop up unexpectedly, such as Skroef’s telling of dream he had involving a black cat which triggered his suspicion of Chili, and a bullet ballet during the anticipated heist is nicely handled, but sadly overshadowed by a moment of a badly edited body falling from a great height during the final climax. Likewise, a distracting amount of zoomed in frames appear to be used to create some sort of anxiety or tension during the initial set-up. Above all, iNumber Number, as much as it does achieve with very little, collapses under the weight of familiarity, outshined by this year’s Metro Manila which utilizes similar themes and setups.

Reviewed on September 12 at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival – Contemporary World Cinema Program.
96 Mins.