Mr Johnson gets a second chance at life

Most great story ideas probably begin with the musing “imagine if…” and the premise of the award-winning South African film Mr Johnson gets right to the heart of the matter.

Imagine waking up from a 47-year coma. Your last memory is being 26 years old, in love, filled with invincibility and with your whole life ahead of you, with all its hopes, plans and dreams. Now, not only are you old and wrinkled, a trauma in itself, but you have to learn to use your ancient body again, in a world that has bewilderingly moved on.

Anyone old enough to remember the 1970s immediately knows how different things were then, but living through the changes, we’ve adapted. Now imagine you hadn’t been part of the evolution. How would you react to cell phones, 400 channels of TV (for reference, SABC began broadcasting nationally in 1976), the rush and noise of a modern city, and even what cars look like? Older people have a hard time adjusting to each bit of new technology as it is; imagine having it thrust on you all at the same time. 

Imagine too that you are 73 and you desperately want to connect with family and friends. Your parents died years ago, as did all your buddies. Or “chinas”; our Mr David Johnson, although he came from a billionaire family, which could cover such a lengthy hospital stay and provide him with a mansion to live in, speaks in old school slang, with words like “jammie”, “boney”, and “goose”.

And then on top of that – yes, there’s more – is the shock of how everyone perceives you, and discriminates against your age. You are frail, and friendliness is deemed weird. Perverted even.

Wrenched from his long sleep, David endures physiotherapy to restore a body at an age when most people are getting ready to wind down. He has to learn to speak again, and when he can do that, there is a lot of psychological therapy. Delivered to his mansion by the son of the family lawyer, with stern instructions not to drive, David wanders aimlessly around the rooms filled with dusty memories. Except the kitchen. That’s super modern and there’s kombucha in the fridge. I mention that because his reaction to the drink is both funny and accurate.

But does David listen? No, he does not. He takes the Rolls Royce convertible out for a spin, and not only finds street parking in Sandton but then leaves all his shopping unattended and it doesn’t get stolen. It’s not that kind of movie. Neither is it the kind of movie that overstates that the first person David sees when he wakes is a black doctor; that is quietly left to the audience to note.

David’s loneliness is omnipresent, and he slowly adjusts to making unusual new connections. He takes to frequenting an internet cafe where he experiences elder abuse but also kindness as he begins the search for his long lost sweetheart, Helena.

Mr Johnson is one of the sweetest, gentlest movies you can hope to watch. You’re reeled slowly in to engage with the protagonist who has the enthusiasm and innocence – and fashion sense and recklessness – of a much younger man, combined with the realities of ageing. There’s a twist or three in the last few minutes of the film that will tug at the heartstrings, after you’ve been seduced by moments of tender humour.

It’s no wonder Mr Johnson won Best Feature Film at the Global Nonviolent Film Festival in 2020, and Best Actor for Paul Slabolepszy – who is a national treasure, as is Jana Cilliers, who also appears. It also won Best Feature Film at the Lonely Wolf: London International Film Festival in 2021. It’s a superb example of the level of film making in South Africa.