TIA (Tedious in Africa)

Rating: 4/10 (25 December 2006)

This is a story that needs to be told, but I am not sure it was necessary to do so through the lens of a misplaced love story. It was one thing for Maggie to give Archer a card and to tell Archer to call. But to say that she has given him her cell, work, and home phone was a bit much. Unfortunately, Maggie exists not just as a love interest but the voice of conscience. That she has to call attention to savagery and exploitation trivializes the politics of the film. More to the point may have been a narrative portraying more of the abject poverty in Sierra Leone and Guinea, as well as the plight of the refugees, orphans, and boy soldiers -- all of which could be understood through the lens of a journalist (not a love interest). If you are interested in an action movie, there was plenty of blowing up of cars and executions. This film was entirely too long.