Decent enough movie, but could have used better editing

Rating: 8/10 (22 December 2006)

Blood Diamond is my kind of movie. It has action, and stunts, and explosions, but they are really used to propel the storyline, not in and of itself. It also has an overriding ethical theme to it, in this case the tragedy that is war-torn Africa.
It's a very compelling storyline. A simple fisherman from Sierra Leone tries to raise his family and educate his children. Yet the rebels have a different plan: they attack the village, slaughter many, drive the rest away, and capture the fisherman, making him a slave in a diamond mine. He discovers a large pink diamond, tries to smuggle it away, and the story begins.
The story of modern-day Africa is not a simple one, and this plot is not a simple plot. They touch on the constant state of rebellion of some of these nations; they touch on the practice of turning boys into soldiers and killers; they touch on cross-tribal slaughter; and yes, they touch on the notion of blood diamonds.
The acting is pretty good. Not fantastic, but decent. Leo DiCaprio does a fine job as Danny Archer, a mercenary diamond smuggler. This isn't an Oscar-worthy turn, sometimes his accent is cloying, and his final scene is a bit overdone, but his performance isn't too distracting and, in general, is pretty good. He's just a bit better in The Departed IMO.
I liked Djimon Hounsou as the fisherman, Solomon Vendy. But he, too, overreaches at times. I think he suffers from writing or direction at times, you can tell he's being directed by a white American, his "African-ness" doesn't really shine through. In other words, he's just a bit too unbelievable as a Sierra Leone peasant, but, like Leo, he does a good enough job with it.
I wasn't totally thrilled with Jennifer Connelly in the role of reporter Maddy Brown. I'm not sure if it was her, or her character, that I had a problem with. It seems they just threw her in there because the film needed a conscience, and she solves some inconvenient plot holes, but overall, I don't think this particular character adds much to the film.
That brings me to the overall flaw with this film, and the reason I give it an 8 instead of a 10. What the film really needed was editing and tightening. The addition of the Brown character, plus the expansion of the diamond cartel into an army of mercenaries, distract the viewer from the real meat and bones of the film. The best parts of this film are the unworkable relationship between Archer and Solomon; Solomon's quest for his family's safety (including his search for his soldier son); the overall chaos and brutality of a nation at war; and the sliminess of the blood diamond trade. Anything else (the reporter, some Dicaprio-Connelly sexual tension, the mercenaries), really distracted from those important elements and really should have been chopped, not on the cutting room floor, but in the script revision process.
Filmmakers need to learn how to cut to the heart of the movie and tell that story, and leave the chaff by the wayside.
8 out of 10, points taken off for some poor editing choices.
Barky