KEY POINTS:
Herald rating: * * *
Verdict: Once again Leo has problems with a big lump of ice. Only this African-set politically charged thriller sinks under the weight of its own good intentions.
Set against Sierra Leone's civil war of the 1990s and offering a lecture on the West's connections to its atrocities via the guns-for-gems trade, Blood Diamond certainly succeeds in being thought-provoking.
Trouble is, its efforts at enlightenment soon turn to hectoring. And its thrills default to Hollywood formula.
So while its grand adventure offers warzone excitement as Zimbabwean mercenary-smuggler Danny Archer (DiCaprio) partners with local Solomon Vandy (Hounsou) and American journalist Maddy Bowen, that main thought soon provoked is: how much longer?
No, not how longer must Sierra Leone suffer the dubious diamond trade - as the end titles tell us 2002's United Nations-backed Kimberly Process has been fairly effective at preventing "conflict diamonds". But how many hours to go? Sierra Leone isn't a very big country. Aren't we there yet?
Blood Diamond's valiant attempts to be meaningful action thriller produce some odd results - there are harrowing scenes of massacres by rebel forces using boy soldiers press-ganged, brainwashed and armed with AK47s bought with diamonds mined with slave labour.
These feel like borrowed parts of another story from a far more affecting movie and act more as a rebel chic backdrop to Blood Diamond's main plot.
Elsewhere, Archer encounters a rebel nicknamed "Captain Rambo", itself trying to be an ironic commentary on the far-reaching powers of Hollywood - and the hip-hop-diamond-bling connection gets a sideways glance too. But some later scenes - one involving a helicopter gunship - are pure Rambo. The script might shout that people die horrible deaths in wars we never hear about. But the delivery's meek response is unless that violence is stylised, it's just going to upset you.
After an encounter in prison, Archer and Vandy head into the hills to recover a big carat stone Vandy discovered and hid while in rebel captivity.
Archer wants a big payday, Vandy wants to get his family back and along for the ride is Bowen who wants to blow the whistle on the whole diamond trade, having found a way into Archer's hard heart. For a couple of minutes there, this is feeling like Romancing the Stone with a degree in African geopolitics. But the character and Connelly's performance are both unconvincing, even if she has some telling lines about the wider world's lack of interest in Sierra Leone's troubles.
It's up to Hounsou to shoulder all that nobility director Zwick (Glory, The Last Samurai) feels the need to burden his film with. He acquits himself well.
Likewise DiCaprio, complete with strident Rhodesian accent is impressive, his portrayal of the crafty rogue lifting the leaden material, even if aspects of his character don't ring true - not only is he the best-looking veteran of the South African incursion into Angola, he's the least racist. DiCaprio manages to give Blood Diamond a sparkle it otherwise doesn't deserve.
Like the gem in question, it's just too big, too pretty and far too precious for its own good.
Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Connelly, Djimon Hounsou
Director: Edward Zwick
Rating: R16 (graphic & realistic war scenes)
Running time: 143 mins Screening: SkyCity, Hoyts, Berkeley
