“A Far Off Place” features Reese Witherspoon, already a very mature and well-grounded actress at the age of 17. She easily carries this film over some potentially rough spots in plot and script. Her character is Nonnie Parker, born and raised in Africa on the edge of the Kalahari Desert. Her father has been working for some time to help bring an end to the poaching activities taking place in the area. Elephants are being slaughtered right and left, their tusks being chopped off and stolen. Colonel Mopani Theron has been tracking these men down and giving them as good as they’ve given, but the illegal killings continue.
Harry Winslow and his father John have flown out to visit the Parkers, but their arrival couldn’t have been at a worse time. During their first night, the poachers catch wind tha the Parkers are closing in on them, and they come to burn the house to the ground after shooting everyone inside. Nonni has gone for a late night exploration, and Harry followed her out of curiosity, so the two teenagers were the only ones to survive the massacre. When Nonni goes home, she finds the place crawling with poachers, her parents and Harry’s father dead, and the guard at the gate killed also.
Enlisting the help of Xhabbo, a native bushman, to act as their guide, Harry and Nonni decide to cross the Kalahari to get to the nearest town for help. After a time their pursuers believe them to be dead and they are able to journey in peace, but up until that point, they have to be constanly wary of discovery in addition to their already difficult task of finding enough food and water.
There are many areas in which the plot isn’t very plausible. I’m not sure how long three people could last out in the desert, even if one of them was a bushman. I’m willing to go along for the ride, though, because it is a thrilling story.
It’s rated PG, and bills itself as a family film, but I would say that it’s not appropriate for children under the age of say, ten. There is some peril and I feel that a younger child might be too easily frightened. For your older children and teenagers, though, this movie is a great adventure. I know I enjoyed it.
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