The Constant Gardner
"eye Weekly" Review
Starring Ralph Fiennes, Rachel Weisz. Written by Jeffrey Caine, based on the novel by John le Carré. Directed by Fernando Meirelles. (14A) 128 min. Opens Aug 31.


 The most successful pop writers are those who skillfully and consistently wring variations on a theme -- for Stephen King, it's the horror of the quotidian; for Michael Crichton, it's techno-paranoia. John le Carré, meanwhile, has cornered the market on plucky Westerners unravelling conspiracies in faraway lands. It should come as no surprise, then, that The Constant Gardener concerns a British diplomat, Justin Quayle (Ralph Fiennes), uncovering corporate malfeasance in Kenya.

 The impetus for his investigation is the murder of his wife, Tessa (the typically fabulous Rachel Weisz), a human rights activist whose impassioned inquiries into the activities of certain international pharmaceutical companies -- who she charged with testing potentially harmful AIDS medication on the local population -- clearly ruffled the wrong feathers. Prior to her death, Justin dismissed Tessa's suspicions as hysterical paranoia; realizing too late that his wife had been right all along, the previously mild-mannered paper-pusher transforms into a principled, resourceful and potentially dangerous anti-establishment crusader.

 Justin's personal awakening supplies the film with its emotional heft -- this is, finally, less a political thriller than a tragic love story about a man who only proves worthy of his beloved after she's been lost. It's sobering stuff and Fiennes -- who has made a fine living as the embodiment of clenched, stiff-upper-lip misery -- suffers nobly while also retaining some cloak-and-dagger credibility. Meanwhile, director Fernando Meirelles proves that the striking pace of his 2002 hit City of God wasn't a one-shot deal. The Constant Gardener galumphs nimbly among its plot points and, while its stabs at ripped-from-the-headlines relevance feel half-hearted (remember: indigenous people = good, corporations = bad), it does accumulate real dramatic force along the way.

 

Please visit the other link pages on this site:
Ralph Fiennes Links Page

 Ralph Fiennes Astrology Page

Back to the Jennifer Lash Links page
 

Back to the Ralph Fiennes - Jennifer Lash Main Page

This page was created with the Stonehenge.ttf font and is best enjoyed if you
have the font yourself.  If you want it please click on the green name Stonehenge.ttf above to download and install it to your PC.
Sorry not available for Mac's.  Thanks.
 

These pages are Copy written by Mary Sibley.  All rights reserved.
Please do not use anything within these pages without permission.
Please send an EMail to Mary Sibley for permission, thanks.