Movie Review

The Constant Gardener

The Constant Gardener is from the director of City of God (B-), a film that I thought was pretty good but I never understood the praise that surrounded it. Benefited by a gritty documentary-like tone, I thought the film was emotionally distant despite being one of the mostly blazingly ?alive? depictions in recent time (director Fernando Meirelles did a fantastic job). Many people loved it for being ?different,? a buzz that cultural films tend to receive, but I didn?t take that much away from it. I also didn?t take much away from The Constant Gardener, which shows hints at being a similarly profound commentary but never gets off the ground. Though well acted and terrifically directed (in tone), the film fumbles in its pace and is confused about what type of film it is trying to be.

Ralph Fiennes stars as a diplomat (Justin) whose wife (Tessa, played by Rachel Weisz), a liberal activist, is found murdered after having sent an article about a drug company (that is careless about the TB situation in Kenya) to the wrong people (who she trusted). Justin takes the matter into his own hands to figure out who killed his wife and why, and tries to figure out if Tessa was having an affair at the time.

This is one of those films that the critics praise because it attempts to be an intellectual conversation piece about the health conditions in other continents. I welcome such provocative fare, but Constant Gardener cheats by making that topic a backdrop rather than its main focus (which can make you look ignorant if you don't like the film). The film reminded me of The Great Raid (C+) because it doesn?t have anything new to say about its hot topic and yet we?re supposed to fall victim to its formula because it?s ?a true story? (or a realistic one).

On one hand there is a compelling story about the poverty and injustice, while an even greater amount of time is spent making the film a conventional political thriller. The film is a lot more straightforward than I anticipated (it?s no City of God), and the story treads along on the same notes. It's repetitive, and since I didn?t care about the main plot point to begin with, delaying the payoff (or secret) just made the feature a whole lot more boring.

Fiennes and Weisz almost save this film from being a confused effort, but it still is just that (is this an intimate drama or a thriller?). It?s very obvious that this is from the director of City of God due to the photography and shaky camera style (which is more distracting here), but that picture had a clearer focus of what its agenda was (and didn?t fall victim to such clich?s as affairs in a marriage). Nonetheless, The Constant Gardener is going to be an easy film to be nominated for awards and it?s almost surprising that Miramax isn?t behind it; it?ll be nominated for what it represents, not for what it says.

Lee's Grade: C+
Ranked #57 of 143 between House of Wax (#56) and Chocolate Factory (#58) for 2005 movies.

A	0.4%
B	30.0%
C	61.7%
D	8.0%
F	0.0%