Review: Blood Diamond

UK release date: 26th January

A mercenary Zimbabwean diamond smuggler might seem a stretch for the once impossibly baby-faced Leonardo DiCaprio, but this thought-provoking action thriller offers a superb showcase for his growing talents, despite an occasional lapse into Hollywood sentiment.

For a time it seems the film will be as good as DiCaprio, starting with the surprisingly savage opening scenes of a tiny fishing community being torn apart by guerrillas in war-torn Sierra Leone in the 1990s. A wonderfully low-key Djimon Hounsou plays survivor Solomon Vandy, whose discovery of a rare and priceless stone while working in the diamond fields attracts the attention of chancer Danny Archer (DiCaprio). Archer agrees to help Vandy find the family from which he was taken in return for recovering the diamond from its hiding place and, along with a crusading journalist (an effective Jennifer Connelly), they set off on a perilous quest.

Unfortunately, it’s here that a once provocative, uncomfortable film turns into a predictable and disappointing morality tale that does a sad disservice to its impeccable players.

Radio Times rating:

***

UK cinema certificate 15
Running time 143mins

Review by Damon Wise

News: Jennifer Connelly

Connelly seems to have been taking it fairly easy of late, with this week’s Blood Diamond only her second film in the last three years. She still seems to be trying to pick her projects carefuly, though, with the only film she’s got in the pipeline sounding like a potential awards-winning corker.

Teaming up with Hotel Rwanda writer/director and two-time Oscar nominee Terry George for Reservation Road, it looks like this drama about the aftermath of a hit and run accident, and how it affects two families, could provide plenty of scope for the kind of acting that always gets the attention of the people who decide on award nominations. Joining Connelly to vie for acting acclaim will be fellow Oscar-winner Mira Sorvino, plus two-time Oscar nominee Joaquin Phoenix, and rising star Mark Ruffalo. It’s set for a US release in November – just in time to qualify for the 2008 Academy Awards…

News: Jennifer Connelly

Though playing very much second fiddle ot Kate Winslet’s Oscar-tipped lead performance in this week’s tale of infidelity that is Little Children, former Oscar-nominee Jennifer Connelly will soon be back on our screens in yet more heavy-hitting dramas.

First up is the much-anticipated Blood Diamond, an action-packed exploration of the evils of the African diamond trade starring Leonardo DiCaprio and fellow former Oscar-nominee Djimon Hounsou, hotly tipped again this year for his turn as a poor fisherman who hooks up with DiCaprio’s mercenary in pursuit of a rare pink diamond. It is due out in the UK at the end of January 2007.

Next will be another potential Oscar contender from Hotel Rwanda writer/director Terry George, Reservation Road. Based on the bestselling novel by John Burnham Schwartz, it revolves around the hit-and-run death of a young boy (road accidents seemingly popular after last year’s Oscar success of the similarly-themed Crash), and the fall-out experienced by his flawed friends and family. Connelly will be joined by a top-notch cast that includes Joaquin Phoenix, Mark Ruffalo and Mira Sorvino, all arguably due for a little golden naked man to put on the mantlepiece.

News: Mark Ruffalo

The steady career rise of this versatile character actor continues with his supporting part in All the King’s Men, and should only rocket after appearing near the top of the billing alongside Robert Downey Jr and Jake Gyllenhaal in Seven director David Fincher’s new serial killer flick Zodiac, out in the UK in March 2007. Next he’ll appear alongside Anna Paquin and Matt Damon in the emotionally-charged bus accident aftermath flick Margaret, and then with Joaquin Phoenix, Jennifer Connelly and Mira Sorvino in another character-centred piece based around a road accident, Reservation Road. (Well, it worked for last year’s Oscar-winning Crash, so why not, eh?) It’s only a matter of time before he gets his first full-on lead role – not bad for someone who claims to have had to audition more than 800 times over a ten year period before he finally landed his first film role…

News: Leonardo DiCaprio

The Departed‘s star, as well as teaming up again with director Martin Scorsese for historical biopic The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt, has already finished shooting Blood Diamond for The Last Samurai director Edward Zwick. Starring alongside Djimon Hounsou (already tipped for an Oscar for his work on the film) and Jennifer Connelly, Leo plays a mercenary in civil war-torn Seirra Leone who teams up with Hounsou’s humble fisherman for a priceless pink diamond.

DiCaprio has also been attached to the next project from Syriana writer/director Stephen Gaghan, Blink, based on Gaghan’s own book of short stories about first impressions and snap judgements. Less cerebrally, Leo is also linked with a possible forthcoming adaptation of Robert Ludlum’s political thriller The Chancellor Manuscript.