It reaches for greatness but has flaws

Rating: 7/10 (18 December 2006)

The movie has greatness but it is not perfect; it has both flaws and problems - these are not the same thing. DeCaprio and Connelly and especially Hounsou do a great job. DeCaprio's accent may not be constant and whatever, but it's cute. There're flaws - he insists reprising his Titanic death scene - the noble steed dying. But even that's improving; if you don't see Titanic and thus are oblivious to the kitsch factor, it is quite a touching scene - and paired well with Connelly who I think is well picked for the role. It would have been good to get a little more development from her.
There are also problems though. The brutality of the child war is not necessarily out of place - but its setting (to use a metaphor) is wrong/weak. It certainly is an important thing to show and I applaud its inclusion. It is shocking -- it is like that moment in Constant Gardner developed much further - it does for child war what Terrorist did for "freedom fighting/terrorism". The problem is that while in movies like City of God it seems to belong within the movie, here it still somehow doesn't fit -- may be the movie has a Hollywood feel and the brutal violence just doesn't jibe. Or may be it was just too abrupt.
The other problem is DeCaprio's character. He's an efficient soldier, and we get the expected open-hearted chat about his traumatic childhood in the tet-a-tete scene with Connelly - but there ought to be more. There's a brief scene with Solomon where we get a glimpse of the ferocity really underneath his skin - but its left unmentioned. I think important scenes were cut for the release. But it does well other than that - it tells a good story, it has great actors who do a good job; it raises a vital social issue and shows us a whole other world, a whole other life - it is much like City of God but from a Hollywood angle (which means it must be about a diamond and have a proper plot flow). 7.5 out of 10