Lengthy but well worth seeing and an understandable Oscar contender

Rating: 9/10 (28 August 2007)

STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday Morning
Danny Archer (Leo Di Caprio) is a South African born diamond smuggler who transports diamonds illegally for a London based firm. Meanwhile Solomon (Djimon Hounsou) is a typical African villager who dreams that his son will grow up to be a doctor, only for a militant band of rebels called the KUF to invade his village, take his son hostage and force him to work fishing diamonds out the rivers. Their paths are about to cross in an explosive way when Solomon is caught by a KUF commander trying to conceal a precious diamond for himself and is thrown into a prison camp. Danny gets him out to work for him but Solomon won't do anything until he's found his son and so begins a desperate and deadly race across Africa for the two men, along with idealistic reporter Maddy Bowen (Jennifer Connolly) who wants to expose the corruption going on.
In the leading role, Di Caprio's never been an actor I've really warmed to, as I've always seen him as more of a teen heart-throb rather than a serious actor, but he's making that transition now and roles like this will raise his profile to where he wants to be. His accent was a bit shaky, to be honest, meant to be South African but at times it sounded vaguely cockney and then even Austrailian. Nevertheless, he delivered a fairly commanding performance in the lead role. In the main supporting roles, Hounsou and Connolly are also commendable, if not anything really special.
Performances don't drive the film, the story does, a sprawling, sweeping tale that brings the decadence and evil of the African situation to life, as we see the same problems faced there as they are for black people all over the world, with child soldiers being recruited to serve for militant soldiers, in much the same way as any gang member would do to a kid living in Rio or SC Los Angeles, their young, naive minds being corrupted into thinking they are doing the right thing, made to feel big with a gun and an attitude, and with the same horrid, hollering gangsta rap music blaring all around them. That said, the film also manages some nicer moments, with some great cinematography of wide, luscious African hills, forests and rivers and a genuinely engaging central story of hope and survival. Edward Zwick, whose Legends of the Fall is the main film of his that springs to mind, guides the whole thing along in a manner that's sometimes a bit wavey but nevertheless engaging.
Your attention might wonder a bit sometimes, but overall this is a very rewarding and well made film that was pretty much made for Oscar night. ****