I loved this film. If Dicaprio and Hounsou aren't nominated for awards this year, the academy has really lost it

Rating: 9/10 (20 December 2006)

Blood Diamond is the latest film that discusses the ever-growing violence in Africa. The plot of the film is rather simple. Djimon Hounsou plays Solomon Vandy, a fisherman in South Africa, who is taken by rebels to work in the diamond mines. The same rebels also take his son and begin to mold him into a soldier. Leonardo DiCaprio is Danny Archer, a Zimbabwe mercenary turned diamond smuggler. The two meet in prison after DiCaprio gets caught smuggling diamonds and the mine that Hounsou worked at was raided by government forces. However, before the government forces stormed the mine, Hounsou found and hid a diamond that is worth a fortune. Archer and Vandy team up to find the diamond, Archer wanting money and Vandy wanting to get his family back.
A film like this lives and dies on the shoulders of the actors. Luckily, director Edward Zwick was able to get two of the best actors around for the roles. DiCaprio gives his best performance of his life in the film. Trailers had me worried at the beginning with his accent, but it works perfectly in the film. He plays the arrogant, asshole character very well and causes the audience to keep guessing on what his character may do next. I would give him an Oscar nomination for this over The Departed. Hounsou has a very difficult character to play. Due to his built, he is a very intimidating person. However, his character in the film is very different. Vandy is polite, soft spoken, and is only a violent man when his family is in danger. DiCaprio and Hounsou have great chemistry and watching their character's friendship grow as the film progressive is exciting to see. Jennifer Connelly also stars as Maddy Bowen, a journalist and love interest to Archer. Her character really was underused and did not serve much of a purpose until the last 10 to 15 minutes. Connelly was good in the limited time she was used but the love story did not work very well and seem somewhat forced.
The violence in the film surprised me a lot. I was not expecting a lot of gore but I was very surprised. The audience saw hands cut off, heads blown apart, and blood, lots of blood. However, none of the violence took away from the story, the violence was there to show just what was happening in Africa and I credit Zwick for doing it as tasteful as possible. The direction of the film was perfect. There were some beautiful shots in the film, especially the final shot in Africa. It really showed how beautiful the country could be if there was not so much death and destruction.
The plot seemed tough to believe at first. I just could not buy Vandy allying himself with Archer. Vandy held all the cards and did not need to deal Archer in but for some reason he did. I slowly bought into it though and this allowed me to enjoy the film. The movie really was a character study on how two people so opposite who believed opposite things could get along and start to become friends. Towards the end of the third act you could feel for these characters and wanted their friendship to last outside of Africa even if you knew that it would not. The movie is a bit predictable but it still does not take away how powerful the film really is.
Overall, I loved this film. I thought it was almost perfect in everyway. If DiCaprio and Hounsou are not nominated for Oscars after their roles, then the Academy really has lost it. The direction is near perfect and the soundtrack was great.
Review by Jay, written for film site www.boxofficefanatic.com