Flawed Diamond

I recently decided to take a chance on a newer, somewhat critically acclaimed movie, despite the fact that no one I know had seen it (that I know of) to give a more personal recommendation. The movie was Blood Diamond, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Djimon Hounsou, and Jennifer Connelly -- a story set against the backdrop of the 1990s civil war in Sierra Leone.

The plot surrounds a captured local man (Hounsou) forced to work in gathering diamonds for a brutal regime. He escapes with both his life and the knowledge of where to find an incredibly large and valuable stone, which others (including DiCaprio) are trying to claim for themselves. Together they enlist the help of a journalist (Connelly) to get back to the place the diamond is buried.

This movie makes no bones about it -- it's trying to be Important with a capital I. The plot is all just furnishings around what seems to really matter to the filmmakers, telling the story of horrible atrocities committed in parts of Africa. And while they certainly teach some lessons here, they don't make a particularly entertaining movie, in my opinion. It all comes off dry and heavy-handed. When 24 did their stand-alone movie, Redemption, that was set in Africa and touched on similar issues... well, cheesy though 24 can be at times, they had a far more compelling action-adventure to tell with just the right touch of moral preaching.

The acting in Blood Diamond is very good. In particular, Djimon Hounsou is great with some very difficult material full of family anguish and life-and-death situations. But it's not enough to sustain a very slow-paced tale over a very long two-plus hours. I rate the movie a C-. There are some truths here that arguably everyone should be aware of, but there's nothing here to make the medicine go down any better than a well-written op-ed article you might check out somewhere else.