CNS Movie Review: The Constant Gardener

The Constant Gardener

By Harry Forbes
Catholic News Service

NEW YORK (CNS) -- As you'd expect from John le Carre, "The Constant Gardener" (Focus), an adaptation of his 2000 novel, is a complex political thriller. But, like the book, it's also a searing indictment of those who would use Third World nations to test unapproved drugs on a helpless public.

African-based diplomat Justin Quayle (Ralph Fiennes) of the British High Commission is harangued by activist Tessa (Rachel Weisz) at a speaking engagement in London. She alienates the other attendees, but when the room empties and she dissolves into tears of embarrassment and frustration, Quayle feels sorry for her and asks her out for a drink.

The impromptu date leads to romance, and before long she's inviting herself to join him when he returns to his station in Africa.

There, after they are married, she is murdered on a remote road, along with a doctor colleague. (The story is told in nonlinear fashion with flashbacks and fast-forwards.)

Quayle sets out to uncover the mystery behind her murder, and is told by his friend and fellow diplomat Sandy (Danny Huston) that she may have been having an affair with a black doctor named Arnold Bluhm (Hubert Kounde) with whom she was traveling.

A mild-mannered man, given to watering his numerous plants, Quayle is energized by the shocking death to probe the circumstances, uncovering a web of intrigue involving conspiracies, government corruption and betrayal at the highest levels of power.

Director Fernando Meirelles' ("City of God") adaptation of le Carre's novel (screenplay by Jeffrey Caine) is a longish-feeling 130 minutes, and though the plot is twisty -- and occasionally confusing, with lots of fast cutting as the narrative shuttles back and forth in time -- it holds your interest.

Fiennes is at his very best, showing how his easygoing complacency morphs into an impassioned activism much like that of his wife. Weisz is appropriately obnoxious in her strident activism, but likable too. Besides their excellent work, there are also solid acting turns by Huston, Gerard McSorley, Richard McCabe, Bill Nighy and Pete Postlethwaite.

Much of the movie was shot on location in Kenya, London and Berlin.

All in all, this is a quality film with an important social justice message. A postscript from le Carre at the end reads: "Nobody in this story, and no outfit or corporation, thank God, is based upon an actual person or outfit in the real world. But I can tell you this; as my journey through the pharmaceutical jungle progressed, I came to realize that, by comparison with the reality, my story was as tame as a holiday postcard."

This film contains brief rear and partial nudity, scattered profanity, rough language and crude expressions, a restrained premarital bedroom scene, quick blurry shots of violence including lynching, and a gruesome description of death. The USCCB Office for Film & Broadcasting classification is A-III -- adults. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is R -- restricted.

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Forbes is director of the Office for Film & Broadcasting of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

END

Copyright (c) 2005 Catholic News Service/USCCB. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed.
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