Film review: Blood Diamond-midday

Sparkles, but doesn't shine

Leonardo Di Caprio and Djimon Hounsou in Blood Diamond

What's it about: Set against the bloody backdrop of Sierra Leone, the story revolves around three characters. Danny Archer (DiCaprio) survives on smuggling diamonds out of the war-torn region.

For him, 'TIA' (This is Africa) stands for everything white and black that happens around him. Solomon Vandy, a local fisherman (Hounsou) stumbles upon a rare pink diamond that will set the ball rolling and set off a bomb more powerful than the one found in the minefields of Africa.

Maddy Bowen (Connelly) is an American journalist and her raison d'tre is making a difference with her hard-hitting research on tapping the problem of blood diamonds (stones exported out of war-torn countries).

These three players meet at a crossroad where their survival is interdependent on each other's needs. Archer needs to take the pink diamond out of Africa to loosen the noose of deep debt hanging around his neck, while Solomon sees the stone as the only way to ensure his family a respectable life.

Maddy, on the other hand, wants to blow the lid off the shady business she sees happening in Africa.

What's good: Africa always serves as an interesting backdrop to make movies. We've seen thrillers (Ghost and the Darkness), romantic dramas (Out of Africa), even comedies (The Gods Must Be Crazy) set in the Savannahs.

Edward Zwick presents a stripped West Africa without its colour and grandeur. The shanty bylanes, flies buzzing on the food table and prostitutes scurrying after prospective clients fill up the screen in the opening shots. Leo's grown as an actor and how. We saw him stand up to Jack Nicholson in The Departed last year.

This time around, he's got a totally different swing to his character. Like Jack Sparrow, only more serious, Danny Archer has a wicked vibe to him. Working fabulously on developing the local accent, Leo makes his white man raised in Africa totally believable.

However, the real showstopper in the film is Djimon Hounsou. Working on his body language and speaking through his eyes most of the time, he brings to life his character as someone who camouflages himself in the red earth and pouring rain of his motherland.

His last scene, where he enters a room dressed in a grey suit, takes your breath away as you witness one of the most amazing character transformations on screen. Jennifer Connelly is likeable but falls short of an exemplary performance.

What's bad: The film needs some serious editing in the second half. Post-interval, the plot starts coming apart in three different directions — the quest for the diamond, Archer and Bowen's romance and Solomon's hunt to reunite with his family.

Zwick, at times, seems confused about which way to take the story. There's loads of blood spilling out in every scene, and the violence is excruciatingly numbing. Kudos to Zwick for tackling a relatively unknown yet serious issue, but the impact suffers from the myriad sub-plots building up throughout the film.

What's that! Frankly, we didn't expect a lot from Gaurav Chopraa's 'I am in the same frame as Leo' moment. But the actor did manage to stand out in the scene, thanks largely to his towering height and the fact that he is the only scruffy-looking Asian in the scene.

What to do: King of rhyme Kanye West raps in his signature classic, Diamonds from Sierra Leone, 'Throw your diamonds in the sky if you feel the vibe...' After watching this film, the ladies will definitely give this line a second thought.