A good find if a little rough around the edges

Rating: 7/10 (8 January 2007)

If anything, Edward Zwick's latest film "Blood Diamond" - yet another commentary on African turmoil, this time focusing on conflict diamonds - presents brutal facts that can make one examine his position regarding consumerism. However, Zwick and screenwriter Charles Leavitt overstate the matter by focusing on too many perspectives and the result is an unfocused narrative with a runtime that feels too long for something that could have used a few minutes less.
Set in 1999, when the Sierra Leone government was in a civil war against the insurgent Revolutionary United Front (RUF), Danny Archer (Leonardo DiCaprio) is arrested for smuggling conflict diamonds out of the war-stricken country. Faced with the problem of having to repay Colonel Coetzee (Arnold Vosloo) - the South African mercenary supposed to receive said diamonds - Archer, a white former soldier from Southern Africa (Rhodesia, particularly) finds a desperate hope in Solomon Vandy (Djimon Hounsou), who he believes has found and secretly buried a hundred-karat diamond deep in the forests. Archer then enlists Vandy's help, along with Maddy Bowen (Jennifer Connelly) - an American magazine writer - in acquiring the diamond in exchange for helping the latter find his family earlier separated from him during an RUF raid in their village.
No stranger to movies tackling international conflicts, Zwick succeeds in portraying the brute exploitation of the war-torn country's citizens with graphic shots of sadist chaos reverberating throughout. While it does get a little too patronizing, the film's ambivalence towards the course it should take is its greatest fault. As such, there are times the gunfights and explosions nearly get the better of a script that otherwise feels like a standard action thriller.
Fortunately, some of the featured performances give good enough reasons for one to root for the film's characters. DiCaprio, a lock for various acting awards this season, provides nuance and credibility to his character with another solidly gritty performance. Hounsou in turn manages to garner sympathy for what could have been an archetypal role. On the other hand, Connelly doesn't generate interest as her character is barely defined and her presence is mostly inconsistent.
"Blood Diamond" is ultimately a fairly solid film. Despite its flaws, the film has the ability to provoke anyone with the brutal nature of its theme. Well, yes, it got me into thinking at times that it could have been better but during the parts that work, it got me engaged nonetheless.