A bit uneven in tone and focus, but interesting and carried by a gripping double act

Rating: 7/10 (17 July 2007)

Blood Diamond, Edward Zwick's latest feature, is supposed to do three things at the same time: a) make the audience feel guilty about the controversy surrounding "conflict diamonds", its point being we don't just ignore the problem, but actually support it; b) expose, not afraid of showing cruel details, the problem of child-soldiers, another problem that keeps haunting Africa (and South America, as seen in City of God); c) tell a story, in pure Hollywood tradition, of redemption and reconciliation, connected with the previous two issues. Now, the title seems to suggest Zwick's first aim should be the one that resonates with most energy. Oddly, it doesn't, the anti-diamond lecture being overshadowed by the children's exploitation subplot and its role in the main narrative.
The film is set in Sierra Leone, one of the most profitable zones when it comes to finding and selling certain precious little stones. One of these is found by Solomon Vandy (Djimon Hounsou), a local who has been taken away from his family and used as a slave by one of the area's most powerful crime-lords. Once the latter is arrested, everything should go back to normal. Unfortunately, he manages to break out and decides to get back at Solomon, who refused to give him the diamond, by kidnapping his son and slowly turning the young boy into a cold, emotionless killing machine. Overwhelmed by despair, Solomon is willing to do anything to get his son back. And that's where Danny Archer (Leonardo Di Caprio) enters the game: a cynical mercenary with no concern whatsoever for other human beings, he accepts to help the grief-stricken family man in exchange for the infamous diamond, while a journalist named Maddy Bowen (Jennifer Connelly) tries to convince him he can become a better man.
The screenplay stages the classic confrontation between two radically opposed lines of thought, showing how both can learn something from the other and hopefully get to the end of the movie with a new set of values. This situation also occurred in Zwick's previous film, The Last Samurai, another story of honor and redemption, and both pictures got their main strength from the performances: much like Ken Watanabe, Hounsou is the film's real soul, injecting pain and humanity into the kind of character that would be used as the villain in more traditional flicks; and like Tom Cruise, Di Caprio shows he is capable of some really serious acting, although he should have received the Academy Award nomination (and won the Oscar, hadn't it been for Forest Whitaker) for The Departed instead of this movie. Why? Mostly because of the accent: even if he nails the South-African vocal quirks from his very first scene, every time he speaks it seems like his spot-on delivery and the rest of his intense work belong to two different worlds, whereas in Martin Scorsese's masterful gangster tale the Boston accent and the body language merged into the Titanic star's most accomplished and compelling role so far. Nevertheless, he has enough charisma to carry the plot, as opposed to Connelly who struggles to give something more to an essentially clichéd character.
The relationship between Danny and Solomon enables Zwick to lend extra weight to the scenes involving the grueling mental torture African children are subjected to in order to "serve their country" as miniaturized assassins. It's all stuff that has been filmed before, but the director knows what buttons to push to make the material shocking and, given it involves at least one person the audience should care about, a little upsetting.
By focusing on these elements with more interest, Zwick ironically fails to successfully convey what was intended to be the movie's big message (conflict diamonds are bad, okay?). Even the epilogue, where he ties together the main narrative and the two "important" themes he was supposed to explore, causes a sort of mixed reaction: while it is easy to root for the characters and cheer or cry because of how things turn out for them, chances of people starting to boycott "blood diamonds" after seeing this film are quite limited.