Remarkable potential left slightly under utilized

Rating: 7/10 (14 April 2006)

Lord of War is a rather interesting film about an arms dealer named Yuri Orlov. I have never seen a film like this, it's unique and such an interesting concept. There is no "good guy," only a sort of mock-umentary which feels so real about a horrible human being who is an arms dealer from the beginning of his career and creation forward. The story and scenes are disturbing and very moving and yet amidst all this I think Lord Of War could have been downright brilliant, but was not made to it's full potential.
All right it's true for some odd reason I can't bring myself to fully like or appreciate star Nicholas Cage. So, so many of his films I have loved and yet I find him sub-par in the acting genre. I think he's brilliant at choosing the right scripts but I find his acting range very limited. Although he was adequate as the Lord of War himself Orlov, I think someone...I don't know who...could have really done some Oscar worthy performing out of the character. Still Cage is watchable and he does do a pretty good job at showing a complete and utter lack of compassion for the people he sells these weapons to. Bridget Moynahan plays Orlov's soul mate, dream girl and wife Ava Fontaine Orlov. Despite her slightly smaller role she does a great job as being completely naive to her husband's business. Jared Leto is truly the stand out performance in this film as Yuri's strung out, seriously misguided brother Vitaly Orlov. Every scene is different for his character and for him and despite also having a small role he makes the best of every scene and is absolutely the scene stealer. I suppose it might be worth mentioned that Ethan Hawke plays Orlov's adversary Jack Valentine desperately trying to capture and bring down the arms dealer to no avail or success. His role is small and he doesn't really do anything spectacular with the role. In fact he's almost too aggressive and you never really feel the intensity between the two men the way I think you should have.
The problem with the film that stops it from being completely brilliant is not that the cast is bad by any means but that they are just simply adequate. They aren't brilliant and that holds back what this film could have been. It's truly a remarkable bio about an arms dealer, a side of the world we rarely see in film or otherwise. This is a man who started out just wanting to make a mark on the world and literally ends up losing his soul. You see a complete lack of caring in his eyes and although he only kills one man barely by his own will he is moved and terrified by it but turns a blind eye to others doing it. Andrew Niccol does set up a terrific film but it simply falls short of full potential due to the sub standard cast and it just feels like not enough heart, time or effort was put into it...it's unfortunate but still interesting enough to make it worth while. 7/10