Blood Diamond

Rented this on Saturday night with not very high hopes, especially following a disappointing viewing of (the director) Edward Zwick's Glory and having witnessed Leonardo Di Caprio's dodgy Zimbabwean accent in the trailer. And I ended up being pleasantly surprised.
Don't get me wrong, this film has it's flaws. Events just seem to happen to advance the plot along without paying great attention to the film's frame of reference and (similarly) characters crop up in handy situations without proper explanation and without following the narrative thread. And, at times, the use of action (particularly gunfights) detracts from the tension rather than adding to it.
That said, there is much to recommend it to. I'm not a huge Di Caprio fan by any means, but he grew into this role and became more and more convincing as the film went on, to the extent that a what-should-have-been-pretty-damn-ropey final scene involving a satellite phone is very effective and hits the right emotional level. That, despite a very shaky start. Jennifer Connelly is also effective as a crusading journalist. The real star of the show, however, is the excellent Djimon Hounsou, who pulls off a number of difficult scenes excellently and provides the emotional depth to keep you engaged throughout. It's his story and it's in his struggle (coupled with that of his son, played with real verve for such a young actor, by Kagiso Kuypers) that you invest your emotional involvement.
5 Oscar nominations is a little generous, but Oscar likes these 'issue films' and this confronts two (the shockingly amoral diamond trade and the even more shocking exploitation of child-soldiers) with both relish and effectiveness, even if the later issue deserves (and, for that matter, needs) a film of its own. Whether Hollywood is best equipped to make it is another issue.
Flawed, but certainly not irredeemably so.

B


Djimon Hounsou, the true star of Blood Diamond