The DVD story of the late South African cricket legend Hansie Cronje, written and produced by his brother Frans Cronje.

Russ Bravo attended the London premiere in March.

When South Africa's cricket captain Hansie Cronje admitted to involvement with Indian bookmakers, and gave a subsequent public confession that he had involved others in adjusting their performances for money, the international sporting community was stunned.

Cronje had spearheaded a South African team's passionate development from a side alienated from international sport during the apartheid era, to one of the top sides in the world by the end of the Nineties. His talent and leadership gave the new South Africa post-apartheid a genuine hero, symbolic of the nation's future hope.

And more than that, he was known as a committed Christian – a man of honour, integrity and moral depth.

This film, produced and written by Hansie's brother Frans, tells the story of his rise to glory and subsequent dramatic fall, followed his journey into redemption and forgiveness prior to his tragic death at 32 in an air crash in 2002.

First, the good things about this film. It's a gripping human story, for the most part well filmed and eminently watchable. There are powerful performances from Frank Rautenbach (as Hansie), Sarah Thompson (as his wife Bertha), David Sherwood (Peter Pollock, Hansie's mentor and chairman of selectors in South Africa), Nick Lorentz (South African's team coach Bob Woolmer) and Andre Jacobs (Dr Ali Bacher, CEO of the United Cricket Board of South Africa).

The film works hard at getting to the heart of the man who became South Africa's golden boy, and who ended up branded a liar and a cheat. And as a 'Christian' film, there is a quality to the production values, performances and flow of the story that is rarely seen in other movies.

Cricket fans are likely to enjoy it, as they'll be familiar with the characters – Aussie spin legend Shane Warne is represented, as well as the top South African players of the time – although the 'action' shown does look a bit stagey at times and the crowd shots don't always match what's going on at the wicket.

Now, the not so good. It isn't made clear enough as the story unfolds, why a man at the peak of his powers and with so much to lose, should be tempted by money offered by bookmakers. If Hansie had a weakness for money, the film doesn't explore that, so it seems baffling why he doesn't simply tell the shady characters he gets involved with to get lost.

On the faith aspect, there is an early scene that sees Hansie appearing at the Rhema mega-church of Pastor Ray McCauley (a controversial church often accused of preaching a prosperity gospel), talking about the talent God has given him and wanting to use it "for His glory". But his faith is not prominent then until much later in the film when he is rock bottom and reaches out for a Bible. In questions after our preview showing, his brother Frans explains that at the height of his success, Hansie "got too busy".

There is a strong redemptive theme at the end, as the man who went from hero to zero learns through his mentor that God can forgive him, and learns to forgive himself. And the text on screen at the very end makes it very clear that worldly success counts for nothing alongside loving God and your neighbour.

But somehow there are gaps in this story, and while director Regardt van den Bergh's comment "we are not doing a movie about cricket, we are doing a movie about our frailty before temptation and our weaknesses" is worth of note, it left this viewer strangely unsatisfied.

It's not by any means a bad movie, and there is value to be had from it, but it's flawed. And could have been so much more. Rather like its subject, really.

Russ Bravo is editor of Inspire Magazine