Tuesday, February 13, 2007

Blood Diamond

Wow, my titles are uninspiring. Hopefully the text below is somewhat more engaging, and hopefully the majority of you are not cringing in light of two posts in a row about DiCaprio. Well, don't fear. This isn't really about him. He gets a few mentions, I guess. Scan through, and avoid the sentences you don't like.

Blood Diamond opens with Solomon Vandy (a credible, solid Djimon Housou), a hard-working black fisherman living in Sierra Leone with his wife and children, who is quickly whisked away by rebel forces (the RUF) to pan for diamonds. His wife and daughter escape, but his son, Dia, is captured and given arms in the war against the government. When Solomon finds a goose-egg sized diamond, he manages to hide it - but not without rebel leader Captain Poison (a predictably evil David Harewood) seeing him. Meanwhile, diamond smuggler Danny Archer (DiCaprio in typically stellar form) lands himself in prison for smuggling over the border into Liberia; in prison, he hears tell of the large diamond and sets himself on a mission to find it. Exchanging directions to the stone for a promise to help Solomon locate his family, the two set off together - with the help of friendly, morally wholesome American journalist Maddy Bowen, played by a fresh-faced Jennifer Connelly - on a life-threatening adventure.

Blood Diamond is a victim, not of its length, as some suggest, but really more of its own indecision. Laid out with all the grisly action of a proper rollicking adventure, it still struggles to reveal the dubious morals of the diamond industry in an interesting way. It can't seem to make its mind up whether it wants to be Indiana Jones or Hotel Rwanda. While on some level, it functions as both - and certainly both aspects have great moments - it would be all the more effective were it to pare down to a single genre. As an example, let me contrast two scenes from the film itself: one, where estranged son Dia is forced to shoot a man while blindfolded, and thus the plight of child soldiers is revealed to the audience; another, where - near the denouement of the film - Danny Archer is shown remorselessly shooting reams of child soldiers to death. Where conflict is concerned, the film occasionally lapses in its morality, and therefore seems to be built on shaky foundations.

Another irritating aspect of the movie is the unnecessary "life-changing" romance between Maddy and Archer. Danny's character is too wise and world-weary for a sweetie-pie like Connelly's American girl, and her affect on him is never truly credible. On the other hand, the tentative friendship between the two leading males - Hounsou and DiCaprio - is sensitive and wholly watchable. Both actors give consistently excellent performances throughout, and deserve lashings of praise; it is merely a shame that a sometimes-clichéd script obscured the true relationship development.

If you watch a film for acting content, engaging action, and beautiful cinematography, this film is for you. If, on the other hand, you like your reality unhampered by shoot-outs and romance, perhaps you're better off looking for something a little more serious.

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