Blood spilled by the Script

Rating: 7/10 (23 October 2007)

Director Edward Zwick brings us the authentic and socially significant Blood Diamond starring Academy Award nominees Leonardo DiCaprio and Djimon Hounsou and winner Jennifer Connelly. This is the story of Danny Archer, (DiCaprio) a South African smuggler who crosses the paths of Solomon Vandy, (Hounsou) a fisherman in search of his lost son and Maddy Bowen, (Connelly) an American journalist in search of a story. When Solomon hides a rare diamond, everyone including Archer will stop at nothing to gain possession.
Zwick who has brought some tantalizing and underrated pictures such as The Last Samurai and Glory has truly brought forth a magnificent piece of cinema here. Zwick can't save the film however from the lukewarm script by Charles Leavitt. The message of the film is quite powerful, quickly engaging the viewer and hooking us into it. The film's visual aspects is what pulls the viewer through with the journey a diamond makes from the ruins to the finger.
Leonardo DiCaprio gives one of his strongest performances of his career and the year. Alongside his powerful work in The Departed, 2006 belonged to him. No other performance this year had us invested in a character we know we shouldn't be loving. Its quite remarkable how engaged we become with Danny, the evil, the antics, the redemption, all these qualities arouse the audience in character development. DiCaprio takes his first huge step into an adult role which he's struggled with for the past ten years. Becoming a male Meryl Streep, taking on an accent and an against type character is sensational for the young actor.
Djimon Hounsou, showing us high range emotion at every glance ends up coming up a little short. It wasn't really his fault, his character didn't have the investment that DiCaprio's did. As he searches for his son, the story disenchants the audience so by the time we're ready for a meaningful reunion, the audience is left behind in the premise. Hounsou did the best with his material but doesn't even come close to his previous powerhouse performances in Amistad and In America.
Jennifer Connelly's talent is entirely wasted in a character of no importance or significance to the story. Her love affair with Archer is so distracting and unwanted that by near end of the film, we yearn for extinction. This is Leavitt's biggest failure of the picture in the creation of a character. Connelly just can't gain any traction after her Oscar for A Beautiful Mind; she remains on the sideline and as the role seemed promising, it bombs from entry.
Technical aspects of the film are decent enough with strong film editing, cinematography and musical score. All barely above average, nothing spectacular, just a mediocre picture. I'm afraid I can't blame Zwick, he gets an A for effort as well as the cast. The film failed on story alone.
Grade: **½/****