The actor gives perhaps the best performance of the year as Wikus Van De Merwe, a mid-level office functionary for the lazily named Multi-National United, or MNU. MNU has successfully contracted for authority to run District 9, the refugee camp for the disgusting aliens of the eponymous film, and it has gained the authority to relocate the squalid camp and its inhabitants to a location far away. It falls to the none-too-bright Van De Merwe to manage the program. He’s in over his head.
Let’s back up a minute. The aliens arrived around 1985, hungry and exhausted, when their ship came to a stop in the skies above Johannesburg. They looked horrible, smelled bad, and were both stupid and destructive – it was like having a giant frat house dropped right into the middle of your neighborhood. These beings were not going to integrate into human society, so there was just one thing for them: refugee status. But their foul refugee camp has been stinking up Johannesburg for far too long – it’s time to move them to the desert.
So now we’re back to Van De Merwe, the putz. He’s a jovial guy, happily torching Prawn (as the aliens are called) breeding grounds and kicking down doors, completely unaware of the monstrosity of his actions. Then something goes wrong, and Van De Merwe starts to see the other side of the coin.
That’s when Sharlto Copley begins to shine. We see his character break down, and Copley takes us through every step of the process. We believe his fear, his outrage, his crippling inability to process what’s happening as his world turns inside out. This guy shows us a breathtaking range of emotions and reactions, and never for one minute did I doubt that I was on a journey with a real human being.
The film overall? Oh, yeah, it’s terrific. It does what the best science fiction’s supposed to do: take an ambitious concept and use it to comment on an aspect of contemporary society in a fresh and possibly jarring way. It looks great, sounds great, and seamlessly weaves CGI and practical to create an immersive and believable world.
So see DISTRICT 9 if you like science fiction. See it if you like social commentary. Most of all, see it to enjoy a powerhouse performance from one Sharlto Copley. I can’t wait to see what this guy does next.
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