The Constant Gardener dumbed down to jungle adventure level

Rating: 6/10 (29 January 2007)

There is quiet intensity and explosive intensity. I was going to say that 'Blood Diamond' makes no pretense about subscribing to the latter, but the fact is that it does. On the one hand, it treats heavy, salient issues like diamond trade and the trafficking of child-soldiers in Africa, even including a few lines of warning in the credits, but on the other hand it is structured and executed like a generic adventure treasure hunt. It cannot decide what it wants to be, and regrettably botches through both paths.
Set against the backdrop of civil war and chaos in 1990's Sierra Leone, Blood Diamond follows Rhodesian mercenary (oooh, scary!) Danny Archer (Leonardo Dicaprio), Mende fisherman Solomon Vandy (Djimon Hounsou) and American journalist Maddy Bowen (Jennifer Connelly) on a quest to find a rare pink diamond that Solomon first found when he was forced to work in the diamond fields. It intertwines bouts of blood-soaked encounters with child-soldiers, one of which is Solomon's own son that has been taken from him, and with emotional blackmail it cues us in to feel for the miserable conditions in Africa and the venality with which things are run.
The problem is that every slightly serious sceneevery momentis interrupted by some loud explosion, gun violence or shouting and sometimes all three. This is irritating in the film and it suggests two things: the script is unbearably lazy and sees action galore as a plot device and way to avoid writing the end of 'difficult' scenes with conversation or character development or 'Blood Diamond' tells us that we should not take it seriously and just treat it as any run-of-the-mill action-adventure. The problem with this is that it lacks the charm and sparkle in the eye of 'Indiana Jones', and Dicaprio is much too moody and unlikeable as a protagonist.
I have not yet seen many of the Oscar nominated actors' performances, but Leonardo Dicaprio's interpretation of the hard-boiled mercenary is the least deserving so far. It baffles me that such an action-oriented adventure with such a testosterone-fuelled lead could snag nominations with the drama-favouring academy, and I suspect this is solely because of its hazy political core. In comparison, Dicaprio is like Daniel Craig in Casino Royale but without the serious, emotional scenes. Apparently his South African accent is fairly in-tune, according to South Africans, but it seems uneven, exaggerated and varying in pronunciation to me.
None of the other performances are noteworthy either. Djimon Hounsou, shouting does not a good performance make. Jennifer Connelly warms up slightly in her role, shifting from her usual emotionally numb and somber state to being a little smilier, but here she is at the mercy of an underwritten character and there are not many ways in which she can go. The supporting cast for 'Blood Diamond' may be rather one-dimensional caricatures of evil corporate white men and black hard-edged guerilla leaders with berets, but they serve their respective functions rather aptly, especially Michael Sheen's brief appearance. The only issue I have here is that African people speak broken English to each other. Even if they're from the same family.
In the end, 'Blood Diamond' snags the 6 out of 10 from me. The cinematography is gorgeous with a screen that is awash with dramatic colours and shots, the action is fast-paced and exciting and the atmosphere is admirably gritty and visceral in the deep jungles of Africa. It features a ridiculous, two-faced mix between heavy-handed politics á la Constant Gardener and adrenaline-pumping action á la... any action film. It should in all theory be possible to join these two sides, and 'Blood Diamond' possesses all the necessary ingredients to do so, but no blender in which to stir it.
6 out of 10