? A huge stone found
in a Sierra Leone diamond mine offers tantalizing possibilities, and danger,
for the conscripted laborer (Djimon Hounsou) who found it as well as a smuggler
(Leonardo DiCaprio) and a journalist (Jennifer Connelly) with whom he crosses
paths. The African country’s recent civil war forms the backdrop for this
thriller that shows how diamonds are used to finance civil wars.
+ This isn’t a
sprawling, globe-hopping movie in the manner of Traffic or Syriana.
But for a movie that doesn’t try to do too much, it does give a remarkably good
primer on the seediest side of the global diamond business while managing, in a
subplot, to illustrate how child soldiers are “recruited” and indoctrinated.
The corporation that buys the “conflict diamonds” called Van De Kamp, is an
obvious stand-in for DeBeers. (It would make a whole other fascinating feature
or documentary to look at the history of that company, which virtually created
the market for diamond jewels and uses its near-monopoly power to regulate
their scarcity.) I should mention that the movie is surprisingly
action-oriented. Although Hounsou’s character’s story is the thread that the
plot follows, DiCaprio’s character is the pivotal one. With this on top of his
recent effort in Departed, the one-time Titanic pretty boy
continues to demonstrate his versatility. (It took me a few minutes to get used
to DiCaprio’s South African accent, which the South Africans on the IMDB
message board seem to approve.) The movie doesn’t work if he’s an unbridled
villain, but would also have seemed false if he’d turned into a Peace Corps
liberal. Instead, he’s the kind of movie character you can discuss afterward
and reasonably come to different conclusions about. Director Ed Zwick (Glory),
who shot in Mozambique and South Africa, also captures the natural beauty of
the land.
- I’m not sure where
it would have fit, but perhaps a minute or so where someone explained the
history of the tiny country where the movie is set would have been useful.
However, at 143 minutes, the movie feels the tiniest bit bloated.
= ***1/2 This is one
of the most powerful movies of the year. It’s a “problem” film that doesn’t come
off as preachy. It’s also nice to see this and other recent mainstream films
being set in Africa, both for the novelty and because it humanizes a place
largely unfamiliar to most Americans.
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