The White Lioness

Take a leading British actor with a knighthood, put him in moody detective thriller, move the action to South Africa, and there you have ... a major disappointment.

Compared to the Swedish original television series, when Ralf Lassgard played the detective as an overweight, moody personality, who often vented his frustrations on possible suspects, Branagh cuts an anodyne figure. He is frequently photographed in close-up looking worried, but we never know really why he should feel like this.

The plot is pretty unmemorable, with a denouement that can be most charitably described as implausible. Definitely not worth wasting an hour and a half on.

...that's been don e numerous times and the 'revelation' falls flat. I also found it strange that when Branham first meets the Swedish spouse of the missing wife he doesn't even use a smidgen of Swedish

I love the Wallander Books as well as both the Swedish & BBC television versions...up to this point. 'The White Lioness' is probably my favorite of all the Wallander books. So I was anxiously awaiting last nights Wallander on Masterpiece.

I was extremely disappointed with the end product. Branagh was as solid as ever, but he didn't have much to work with.

The screen adaptation was a shell of the great novel. Not the least bit suspenseful i can understand a perceived need to make it contemporary, not centering it on the possible assassination attempt to either de Klerk or Mandela......but it was so dumbed-down. Such a shame.

I hope another writer and production company like Yellow Bird take this story on and do it justice.

Wallander lands in South Africa for a conference, but gets entangled in a local case, involving a missing Swedish woman.

It's a very unusual story, the Swedish setting adds a bleak, dark layer, that atmosphere is of course absent here, instead we have the bold and dramatic imagery of Africa. We have the contrast of the very poor South Africa and the very affluent Sweden.

Branagh's great, wonderfully straight laced, I love that he doesn't play the hero here.

Bonnie Henna is tremendous as Sergeant Grace, incredibly charismatic, she really does steal the scenes.

8/10

I have to say that Branagh's interpretation of the Swedish detective is quite bland. He seems to have little emotion, especially one of joy. The book character is interested in music and is able to laugh at times. While at a law enforcement conference, Kurt finds himself embroiled in South African politics after a white woman disappears. It is not as simple as finding out what happened to her. It involves cover-ups and reprisals. It also brings in the element of power. One normally thinks of the blacks versus the whites in this country and the issues related to Apartheid. But here, there is something involving a wealthy black man that hypocritically puts him in bed with the evil element. Kurt works with a young, black South African female cop. As is his wont, he launches himself into danger without carefully considering the consequences. The down side is the aforementioned lack of personality. A fair comment would be that taking the Swede out of Sweden sort of sterilizes everything. Not a bad offering, but kind of far afield.