Clint Eastwood’s historical sports drama Invictus is inoffensive, watchable, well-crafted entertainment, but it’s not nearly as inspiring or powerful as it thinks it is. Opening with Nelson Mandela’s release from prison after 27 years of incarceration, the film centres on his mission, as South Africa’s president, to unite a country torn by civil unrest by getting the Springboks to win the 1995 Rugby World Cup. The narrative’s narrow focus means it doesn’t reach for any sort of street-level grittiness, and in effect, makes a lot of what happens look a little easy. But to Eastwood’s credit, Invictus doesn’t have a bloated sense of self-importance many of these prestige-vying awards season pics tend to exude, and with Morgan Freeman doing a mighty fine Mandela, half the battle is already won. Unfortunately, Matt Damon’s Springboks captain Franois Pienaar isn’t as interesting a character, his role practically reduced to your standard sports movie motivational coach.