Djimon Hounsou brings humanity

Rating: 7/10 (16 September 2013)

Diamond smuggler Danny Archer (Leonardo DiCaprio) and journalist Maddy Bowen (Jennifer Connelly) are working in the chaos of Sierra Leone. Solomon Vandy (Djimon Hounsou) is a poor fisherman. His village is attacked, and his family is scattered. His son is pressed into fighting for the rebels. He is put into forced labor mining for diamonds. When he finds a rare pink diamond, he figures it's his way out.
There is more than white people coming to fix black people problems. Most of it is due to Djimon Hounsou's powerful performance. Leonardo DiCaprio does a weird African accent, but I'm willing to overlook it. This movie has a grand scale. The refugee camp is big. The battles are surprisingly big. The subject matter is big. So it's very interesting that the best part of the movie is Solomon Vandy. The only drawback is that the story is too big. It's unbelievably big. Since this isn't 007, I like the story to be more realistic.