Blood Diamond

Writer: Charles Leavitt
Director: Edward Zwick
Director of Photography: Eduardo Serra
Editor: Steven Rosenblum
Composer: James Newton Howard
Lead Actor: Leonardo DiCaprio, Djimon Hounsou, Jennifer Connelly
Year: 2007

Blood Diamond concerns the shady history of the diamond trade in Africa and the atrocities that accompany it. Trust me, you'll never think of diamonds in the same way again.

Danny Archer, played by DiCaprio, smuggles diamonds primarily for his own monetary gain. When he runs into a native fisherman named Solomon Vandy (Hounsou), who’s life and family has been torn apart by the warring in his country. Solomon’s primary mission is to recover his family, and could care less about the uber-valuable diamond he has found. Although the two men need each other to accomplish their ends, their motivations clash. Then throw in the perspective of a road weary and discouraged journalist looking for a story (Jennifer’s character), and you have a 3 strand cord that is not easily broken, although the tension is high.

Ed Zwick is a master of a director. Although he does have a thing for messy, intense violence. I always wonder if he doesn’t go overboard, and if he did in any of his films, it would be this one. It is indeed an impressive thing to choreograph. Having never been in the midst of a war, I don’t know if what I’m looking at is realistic. Seeing the amount of bullets being fired, it’s amazing they are able to escape!

Somehow, despite the confusion of the action, Zwick always manages to gain his footing and refocus on why all the mayhem is there. The direction consistently comes back to the heart of people’s motivation, or un-motivation, which is what make stories like this meaningful and interesting.

I love the way Djimon Honsou acts in this film. He's more mature than Gladiator yet still very unpretentious in his style. You can tell that he his directed, but in I kind of like that. The way he delivers his lines and actions is fresh and meaningful.

If there someone on the other end of the spectrum than Djimon it would be DiCaprio. The guy is super confident in his approach, yet is very good and can make that work. His character also calls for a kind of recklessness, which is no doubt why he was casted. If you can see him past the smoke, he’s one committed actor. As the smoke lifts at the end of the film, he becomes an even likeable character, if not under slightly contrived circumstances.

In perhaps one of her most well cast roles, Jennifer Connelly is convincing as a strong-willed journalist.

What is it about black antagonists that is so eerily scary? My oh my, I would be put under a spell just acting along side some of these guys, let alone actually dealing with their characters in real life.

Besides being an epic film, blood diamond is an interesting history, and quite sad, of diamonds. When one realizes the blood shed for these gems, he may not feel super great about buying one. Some diamonds come at a price in more ways than monetarily. There is a very interesting and informative documentary in the special features about how the diamond market works, or doesn't work. In fact, the black market is apparently still thriving.

Reservation Road

Based on the book by John Burnham Schwartz

Writer: John Burnham Schwartz, Terry George
Director: Terry George
Director of Photography: John Lindley
Editor: Naomi Geraghty
Composer: Mark Isham
Lead Actor: Joaquin Phoenix, Mark Ruffalo, Jennifer Connelly
Year: 2007

Reservation Road is a serious and sad drama about a family tragedy. A young boy is killed in a hit and run accident by Dwight Arno, played by Mark Ruffalo. The movie follows the family of the boy as they grieve and seek revenge, while almost just as much following the one that is sought. This tragic story is driven mostly by the performance of the cast, so we will look at each of the main character’s roles.

Jennifer Connelly is superb in this film. Better than in “A Beautiful Mind” I thought. She was rarely seen without teary eyes and a bed-head, which she tries to hide for the sake of her daughter. (As a side note, the make-up department wisely understood the restraint needed here and was careful not to glamorize things. Although that was a very good call, it was perhaps overly intentional). In the early stages of grappling with the death, Grace, Connelly’s character, desperately searches to see if she could be responsible for this in any way. This of course sends her deeper into grief. But soon her husband comes along side her, and assures her that she is not to blame. Then who is to blame? Well, that’s when Joaquin’s character starts to pulsate.

Ethan Learner, Joaquin’s character, is a strong father and husband who his obviously devastated by the loss of his son. He resorts to putting a lot of energy into finding who he views as “the killer”. This obsession does not help to heal him or his family. Through ‘happenstance’, or rather ‘dramatic effect’, the suspect becomes Learner’s attorney in the case. The suspense builds as Ethan gets little clues that lead to a pointblank confrontation of Dwight. This moment is obviously the climax. All through the movie we’ve seen both sides as people; with their own lives and relationships. Will the man who had this terrible thing happen take it out on the man who did it? Will he see any value worth saving in a broken down life that has little to live for, but that is nonetheless trying?

Mark Ruffalo is caught in a desperate pickle. He knows he’s done wrong, but for the sake of his son, he doesn’t own up immediately. He also knows what the consequences will be if found out. For that reason he puts it off, wanting a little more time with his son, one more chance to redeem the last thing he has (which he now only has half of). We understand Dwight’s battle and Ruffalo portrays the insecurity well.

From a script point of view, I wonder if all the “happenstance” went a little overboard. Not only was the suspect the attorney on his own case, but his ex-wife was the piano teacher of the sister of the lost boy. Is all that a little bit contrived? I wouldn’t say flat out that it doesn’t work. As a dramatic story, I think having it makes for suspense. It puts these two people so close together they get the opportunity to see each other for who they are. And then you get to feel the nakedness the character of Dwight feels when he looks Ethan in the eye. You get to feel Ethan’s suspicion and his journey to discovering the truth.

The score in Reservation Road, composed by Mark Isham, is at the same time thematic and restrained. It undertones and yet let’s you know it’s there. It insulates the emotional thrust of the story. I thought it was quite good. The song by Papercranes at the end credits is good as well.

Although there was a little bit of predictability (which isn’t necessarily bad), I think Reservation Road’s script and direction was fine. The movie is mostly a simple and meaningful story that was brought to life with a very talented cast.

Actress picks - Behind the scenes

I thought I will give a short explaination for each of my favorites on the sidebar. I'll start with the actresses.

I don’t base my favorites on the quantity of films I’ve seen them in, but rather their qualities in the film(s) I have. I look at how interesting they can make a character. I also like to see unique qualities in their features…something that sets them apart from the rest. (Note that my favorites list is suspect to change).

Saoirse Ronan is obviously a very young actress, yet she was even younger when she started her acting “career”. At the age of only 12 she received significant recognition with an Oscar nomination for Briony in Paul Wright’s 2007 “Atonement”. Then 2 years later she appeared as Susie Salmon in The Lovely Bones, which is primarily what I base my choosing of her.

Some actresses you wish would never grow up, and Saoirse is one. She has a bright future for success, but Hollywood can so easily snuff one’s light (and purity, in many senses of the word). At this point though, she is putting her brilliant, bright eyes to good use. She has lovely expressions and a great natural posture.

Romola Garai is not yet a household name, and has had few leading roles. You might mostly know her from Wilberforce’s wife in “Amazing Grace”. Although she can generate a genuine smile, I think she has really mastered the smug look, which I think may work better on her than say…Keira Knightley?

No one stands in for Bryce Dallas Howard...she’s one-of-a-kind. As hinted at before, “The Village” is the film responsible for her being on my favorites list. The plays flawlessly the complex character of Ivy Walker. She has good interpretation and delivery of dialog.

I suppose I hesitated putting Jennifer Connelly on here. No doubt people like her looks, but I can’t help but think her distinctness is getting lost in her stardom. I find her approach slightly high-heeled for my taste, which may be just as much her director’s fault. All that aside, she can be a very good actress, no doubt about it. Her roles are often difficult emotionally, so I think with all the practice, she excels in that area.

Who in the world is Mira Sorvino? An Academy Award winner for one thing. But I haven’t seen her in the role, so I suppose that doesn’t mean much to me. I’ve actually seen her in very little, and never in a leading role. And yet there is a gem of a film in which she shines. Wipe away the polish and discover “Like Dandelion Dust”. She doesn’t let us down in this meaningful role as Wendy Porter. At every turn she delivers just what her character needs, without trying to show off. She’s real. I mean, she acts real.

A Beautiful Mind

Based on the biography by Sylvia Nasar

Writer: Akiva Goldsman
Director: Ron Howard
Director of Photography: Roger Deakins
Composer: James Horner
Editor: Mike Hill, Dan Hanley
Lead Actor: Russell Crowe
Year: 2001

A Beautiful mind is a true story (as true as an embellished adaptation can be anyway) about a brilliant man, John Nash, who literally lost his mind. He was a proud man whose sharp intellect began to play tricks on him, causing him to descend into a dark and frantic madness that showed its distress in his health and his relationships. Yet on the bright side, there was apparently some significant discoveries made by this same mind. The illness was a devastating trial for the man, yet his survival and ultimate overcoming is touching. The way in which he was able to rise above his mind games is largely influenced by his wife’s sticking through it with him. Which, judging by the rollercoaster ride of John’s schizophrenia, it wasn’t fun for anyone to be caught in the middle of it.

The beginning of the film shows John Nash’s first days at Princeton University. The images in these parts have a bit of a retro feel and color to them. The palette is golden toned and slightly washed out. This scheme gives things a rather pre-story (or early story) and historical feel. It is here where the principle characters among John’s colleagues are introduced.

In the first half of the movie, Nash is portrayed with some rather silly quirks in relating to the opposite sex. That bit of character was rather unnecessary and crude. Although even before his illness, he did have difficulty relating to people in general. He considered himself having more originality and brains. He himself admitted to not liking people. He desperately sought his own status and a way to distinguish himself, which could very well have been a factor in causing him to slip into his imagined world. Maybe if he was having trouble making it work in real life, his hallucinations could help. Of course they didn’t help, and only made him more insecure and fearful.

It is an epic performance of Russell Crowe. Going from 20 to nearly 70 and merging in and out of schizophrenic behavior, there were a lot of postures he had to portray. He was really a complex character: proud, closed, determined, insecure. He eventually became torn between two lives: one imagined and one real.

Jennifer Connelly, who played Alicia Nash, carried herself a little confident for my taste, but she is certainly beautiful, and was able to portray emotion quite vividly. The sequence with her and John in the hospital is one of her best moments in the movie, in my opinion. She listens as her husband unloads on her his hallucinations that he believes are real. She confronts him with the truth and breaks down in a mix of realization, pity, and helplessness.

There is a cinematography procedure used in a few shots that is interesting. John Nash, with his “beautiful mind”, was often at work figuring out stuff. At times during these thinking sessions, the camera would circle his head, and at least once it would go around a few rotations. This gave a 360 degree view of his mind, if you will.

James Horner’s score is really wonderful. Bright and then brooding, deep and ethereal, it spoke through the ins and outs of John’s life. The use of Charlotte Church’s voice is lively and ingenious. Her voice acted as one of the instruments and was used as a bit of a thematic cue in and of itself. One interesting direction in the scoring was during the night chase sequence. The music is slow and heavy and rather vague. It is an eerie mix with the squealing of tires and gunshots.

A Beautiful Mind tells the story of a free thinking man named John Nash who became enslaved to his mind. He then had to learn to cope with and conquer his illness. The film shares the title of a biography about the now 81 year old man. The film version of the story took plenty of creative license and has some significant alterations to the true story. I think part of what the storytellers wanted to do with this film is give people an opportunity to see through the eyes of a schizophrenic, and thus understand them better. He ultimately learned to ignore his ‘ghosts’, the illusions, giving them no chance to bring him back down that slippery slope from which he climbed.

I also believe the strength love has to mend is shown in John and Alicia’s story. It’s this love that took a man who “was born with two helpings of brain but only half a helping of heart” and taught him that there’s more to life than the intellect. At the end of the movie, as John Nash gives his speech at the Nobel Prize Ceremony (where, by the way, Russell Crowe’s old age makeup job is stunning), he attributes his success and the importance of his life, to the love he shared with his wife.