FILMBRATS - REVIEWS

Solomon Vandy is a South African fisherman who is forced out of his home by the militant group RUF. His family’s fate is remains unknown as he is taken to a diamond mine in Sierra Leone. Withholding a diamond (among many other things) can get a man shot, but Solomon takes that risk. He finds and buries one of the largest uncut pink diamonds anyone has ever seen. After a series of events, he comes into contact with Danny Archer, who is looking for the rumored gem. Archer, a smuggler, knows that rock is the key to getting him out of the dangerous country. Solomon knows this could be the key to getting his family back. The reporter they encounter knows that this is the breakthrough she’s been looking for in order to expose the diamond industry for what it is.

Let me save you 143 minutes. Most diamonds are bad, because they help promote civil war and militias that recruit little kids to be killing machines. Everyone, even major retailers sell these diamonds acquired under the backdrop of massive bloodshed. If you buy diamonds, you could be contributing to helping these horrible groups continue their evil methods. Now, if you still want to be preached at for almost two and a half hours, be my guest and try to sit through this piece of garbage.

I’m not trying to say that the issue isn’t important or doesn’t deserve to be in the limelight. I’m saying if you’re going to put the issue in a fictional cinematic form, do it better. I want another “Hotel Rwanda,” and not this extremely predictable, overly sappy trite story that did everything short of putting emoticons or subtitles up on the screen to tell me what I was supposed to be feeling at any given time. Instead of finding someone who’s gone through this experience and basing the film around his or her life, we’re stuck with this. Writer Charles Leavitt (the equally disappointing “K-PAX”) beats us over the head with a shovel, pounding us with over the top, typical Hollywood sentimentality. You probably won’t find a more formulaic clichéd crap fest released this year. His dialogue couldn’t be worse, either. And don’t even get me started on the obviously forced and completely unbelievable love story between bad guy Archer and reporter lady. The best part is that even if the long and boring as hell movie didn’t get you to realize what bad people we are and those people are, maybe the out of place rap song by Nas will help drive it home as you watch the end credits. I expect more out of my movies with a purpose and I also expect more from a talent like Nas.

The only redeeming factor in the entire movie is the acting by Djimon Hounsou (Solomon). Leo DiC (Archer) is nothing more than an accent spouting horrible lines. Jennifer Connelly (reporter) is nothing more than the token girl. Hounsou is amazing and shows once again how truly unjustly underappreciated he has been as an actor throughout his career. But other than that, the filmmakers should be ashamed of themselves for creating a movie that somehow is able to simultaneously beat us over the head with the point while completely missing it. This is nothing more than typical Hollywood trash about a serious subject that deserves much more respect than it got.

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