"The Umbrella Men" - TIFF Film Review
The Umbrella Men is a begrudging homecoming for Jerome Adams (Jaques De Silva). He moved away from Cape Town as soon as he could, and now resides in Johannesburg, but he’s back in his hometown for his father’s funeral. Jerome’s father was an influential member of the community, and Jerome inherits the local club his dad ran. When he tries to sign the club over to his Aunt Val (June van Merch), Jerome learns that his dad leveraged the club to keep his musical group, the Umbrella Men, afloat. His desperation to keep the club in the family leads to him assembling a small team, Mortimer (Keenan Arrison) and Keisha (Shamilla Miller), to rob a bank while the local Carnival is underway.
Comparison to Ocean’s Eleven is inevitable, but The Umbrella Men is far livelier than Steven Soderbergh’s famed heist flick. That’s thanks in part to the film’s setting in the vibrant Bo-Kaap neighborhood of Cape Town. The neighborhood is easily identified by the multi-colored pastel buildings, cobblestone streets, and pre-1850s architecture. The neighborhood was formally racially segregated and the center of Cape Malay culture. It’s an area that often doesn’t get to be the main focus of films, but The Umbrella Men makes the case for that to change.
The real magic is in the team Jerome collects to pull off his big bank robbery plan. It’s the best rag-tag group of characters one can hope for. Not only in the different sets of skills each one brings to the table, but in their eccentric personalities. In no other circumstance would this exact group of people come together, and together they must pull off a massive robbery.
It would be wrong not to take a moment to celebrate the film’s music. Given that The Umbrella Men is named after a musical group and the main characters are all musicians, it’s no surprise that there are moments of characters losing themselves in song. The music comes from Kyle Shepherd, a South African Jazz pianist. The majority of the score is a mournful trumpet or saxophone that twinkles in the background as things keep getting harder for Jerome.
The Umbrella Men is a self-assured feature from all parties involved. The performances are charming, with enough nuance that the film is able to lift itself to a smart comedy. However, some of the charm wears off as the film approaches its final moments. It’s not due to a changing opinion of the characters, but simply because the film is too long. There are far too many scenes that exist to artificially stretch the length, but they lack substance. All The Umbrella Men needs to truly succeed is a second look at pacing. Make no mistake, once the heist gets underway, it’s a nonstop joy ride.
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