Better than average but no more than good acting

Rating: 6/10 (1 February 2007)

********** *SPOILERS* **********
I just saw this movie yesterday evening and I must admit that I was expecting more. I can't deny that Leondardo DiCaprio does a great job and perhaps deserves his Oscar nomination, although his other great performance in The Departed must have its part in this nomination. If I had to choose between his two performances I would chose Danny Archer as the better, probably because of the more challenging task he had to achieve. I must admit that Archer's final moments, and his sarcasm until the last moment, are irresistible and after making you laugh will most likely send some shivers down your spine.
Mr. Hounsou also has a great appearance with a difficult part, a more sensible one, mostly meant to point out the changes in Archer's feelings. Jennifer Connelly's part is quite a small one and to be frank it didn't impress me at all.
All good until now but when you bring into subject the theme and the script, well I must say that it has its lacks. The subject itself is a touching one, one that should make people ask themselves again if money is the only thing that mattered these days and if it is worth a human's life. We all agree that tragic events happen everywhere and it is no secret that children are being abused in ways we can't even dare to imagine. But why combine all this tragedies with a Rambo type of movie? I am sick of characters that throw themselves in the middle of the battle, bullets flying around, rockets exploding everywhere and our character shoots everyone around just like in an action computer game. I admit that the point was to show that no one cared about those people but it could have found a better way of showing that without making such an incredible hero out of Archer. After all he is human and we all realize that the chances were greater of him getting himself killed in that moment than taking a bullet in the scene where he kills colonel Coetzee.
The brilliant and all knowing bad guy that eventually turns into an emotional savior of the weak is a much used theme and this picture doesn't bring anything new to the subject. We are all sorry for Archer but in the end you have to ask yourself whether he wouldn't have killed Solomon and his kid if he hadn't been shot. Maybe he would, maybe he wouldn't. There was definitely a struggle inside him but his wound had the decisive part in taking the decision.
I realize that the movie was about Africa and the tortures its inhabitants suffer every day and that Archer was only a mean of showing that. The ending suggests that but it leaves us wondering if anything could really be done for those people. Money will always matter more and just like that black guy said, let's hope they don't find oil there.
All in all I think they could have found a better way of telling the story. I really liked the sceneries and some scenes made me think of lord of the rings, the friendship between frodo and Sam, the beginning of their journey and the way Sam carried frodo to the top of mount doom. Anther scene I enjoyed was the one during the road to kono (if I remember well the name) when all those reporters rushed to take pictures and shoot the dead people in the middle of the road. We are no longer impressed by the suffering, we are just trying to sell the better story. It's just about the money or the fame, isn't it?