Morgan Leafy is a secretary to the British High Commissioner to an Africa nation. Leafy is a man that makes himself useful to his boss, the snobbish Arthur Fanshawe, who has no clue about what's going on around him, but who wants to use his secretary to carry on his dirty work, which involves getting one of the most powerful men in the country to do business with his country. The young secretary has an eye for beautiful women around him, especially Hazel, a native beauty, with whom he is having an affair. Things get complicated because Sam Adekunle, a man running for president of the country, wants a favor from Leafy in return after he has accepted the invitation to visit London. The proposition involves swaying a prominent doctor's opposition to a plan that will make Adenkule filthy rich. Things are complicated as a duchess will come for a visit and one of the maids at the Commissioner's residence has been struck by lightning and her body can't be moved because of the natives' belief that Shango, the god of thunder was instrumental in what happened to the woman. A native ritual must be performed and the body can't be moved. Leafy is made to deal with the situation that brings more complications and funny situations.Bruce Beresford has directed this funny movie with sure hand. The novel by William Boyd, which we have not read, was adapted by its author into one a funny satire that looks at the role of English politics in a corrupt country in Africa.Colin Friels is the best thing in the movie. As Morgan Leafy, he is at the center of everything. Mr. Friels is the basic reason for watching this comedy. Sean Connery plays Dr. Murray with an economy that makes his character one of the best things he has done lately. John Lithgow plays Arthur Fanshawe with great panache, making the High Commissioner a ridiculous man. Diana Rigg, Joanne Whalley, Lou Gossett Jr. and the rest of the cast do good work for the director."A Good Man in Africa" is a fun film to watch.

Don't be fooled by the "East Africa" disclaimer. This is about Nigeria, specifically Lagos at the time of the oil boom, when it was the capital. Although many names have been changed, the Yoruba thunder god, Shango, is not, nor are some of the others. There was so much humor possible in that time and place (you had to laugh just to keep from crying sometimes) that of course some of it found its way into the film. The author never understood what was happening, so of course he missed a lot, but then he made the very ignorance of the British one of the butts of his humor. God I love British humor, I envy them for it and I'm grateful to them for giving us Chaplin, Bob Hope, and so many others. But I digress. And this film is not on the level of Chaplin or Hope. I was disappointed. The biggest disappointment was watching great talents like Sean Connery, Diana Rigg and Lou Gossett sleepwalking through their roles on their way to a paycheck. They could have done better.

This film was on late night, mid week BBC television ,last week and I found it fairly easy going in general. It wasn't complicated at all although in some ways it attempted to be so due to the sex subplots involving British diplomat Colin Friels (who also bears a passing resemblance to Ewan MacGregor strangely enough). Those subplots of course came second to the themes of corruption, incompetence and confusion which I have to say reign supreme in Africa. The seemingly intelligent, progressive leader is actually corrupt to the core and is well played by Louis Gossett I thought. The film also took a somewhat farcical view of African culture and politics which is completely over exagerrated but funny nonetheless. For example, the names and words of certain things amused me, like 'newly independent' Kinjanja for example. The local currency was the 'jan-jan' (?), the capital city was unpronouncable, and the locals believe in a god of thunder called 'Shango' which in a way becomes the driving force of the plot and causes our hero Friels all sorts of amusing moments. If struck by lightning, the victim also had to be 'cleansed' by a 'ju-ju' man??!!! True, the locals are portrayed as simple, god fearing, useless idiots which is something of a Euro-stereotype of Africans in general it has to be said. But the British diplomats, played by Friels and Lithgow, are also given rough treatment......they bend over backwards for a corrupt leader, can't deal with local politics, are xenophobic and bumblingly incompetent. But from these situations I did draw a certain degree of amusement, if only due to the fact that I lived in southern africa for over ten years and some of the stereotypes and mishaps were classic Africa.Some good looking female actors also help the film along although the likes of Diana Rigg are under-used. Connery puts in a forgetful performance but both Friels and Lithgow are entertaining. The sticky atmosphere also comes through as does the general hurly burly life of a foreign diplomat in Africa..........I'll give it 6.5/10, easy going and good for a few laughs.

A good example of a movie in search of a plot. What started out as an interesting premise (after all, how many movies being released are set in Africa?) becomes intolerably ridiculous with the use of an insulting (to Africans) plot device about a dead body that the locals insist cannot be moved out of fear of offending a local deity. Good actors, lousy film.