Blood Diamond (2006)

For a movie about Sierra Leone’s civil war, Blood Diamond spends an awful lot of its runtime following a smuggler from Zimbabwe. That’s the honest problem. Leonardo DiCaprio commits hard to Danny Archer and he’s good, but the real heart of the movie is Djimon Hounsou as Solomon Vandy, a fisherman trying to get his family back. Every scene he’s in carries a weight the script around him doesn’t always earn. The film takes its subject seriously, especially children being pulled into the fighting, which it handles with care instead of spectacle. Jennifer Connelly’s journalist mostly exists to explain the issue out loud. The chase across the country is tense and well made, if a little too Hollywood for the story it’s telling. Audiences rated it higher than critics, an 8.0 on IMDb against a 64% on Rotten Tomatoes. A 6.8 because Hounsou is extraordinary and the movie keeps handing the spotlight to someone else. $739 says you think about where a diamond came from the next time one catches your eye in a store window.

What works: Djimon Hounsou gives a powerful, grounded performance, and the film treats the war and its cost with real seriousness.

What doesn’t: It centers the smuggler’s redemption over Solomon’s story, and Jennifer Connelly’s character is mostly there to explain the message.

Who it’s for: Viewers who want a serious thriller with a conscience and are ready for heavy themes about war and exploitation.