Blood Diamond (2006)

Blood Diamond wants to be a political commentary, an action movie, and a very personal family story but succeeds only in delivering the first two.

The horrors of the diamond biz are laid right out and, fairly represented or not, it's powerful stuff. The movie does make clear that only a fraction of the diamonds on the market are ill-gotten, but it's the point that the blood diamond horrors only exist because of a false demand created by withholding available gems that really shocked me. The action scenes are exciting, terrifying, and are scattered perfectly throughout the narrative.

But the personal stuff, for me, just felt a little trite. Everything that could possibly go wrong for this family does go wrong and then everything that can go right does. Realism was thrown out the window for emotional whiplash. I hate being played like that.

Despite its flaws, the film really works. I've never been a diamond girl (plain gold band) and, after seeing this film, I'm glad. I would've probably been compelled to hide my wedding ring from my fellow moviegoers on the way out of the theater if it had a rock in it.

B+