Weisz a wonder in sensual 'Gardener'
By David Elliott

 After consideration of Eva Green, Nicole Kidman, Naomi Watts and Kate Winslet, the role of Tessa in "The Constant Gardener" went to Rachel Weisz. She really occupies it – has any screen performer looked so captivating while abundantly pregnant?

It seems the nude, third trimester shots were faked, but Weisz delivers a performance that is bracingly whole and brave. Tessa is one of the film's two loves. The other is Africa (and at one point Tessa wet-nurses an African baby like a UNICEF madonna).

Both Africa and Tessa are tragic, for this is the John Le Carre novel as adapted by Jeffrey Caine, its twistings directed by Fernando Meirelles ("City of God"). Tessa, who met gentle diplomat Justin Quayle (Ralph Fiennes) by hammering him publicly about British Iraq policy, marries him and insists on going to Kenya, where he helps arrange medical relief efforts.

Polite, truly diplomatic Justin is a quiet gardener whom Tessa badgers about pesticides. She's a full-force liberal, ready to muck around in muck well beyond the garden. This involves rotten mischief, with big drug companies "donating" TB pills to villagers (many with AIDS), covertly using them as guinea pigs to avoid test controls in more legally observant countries (notes a tough realist: "Disposable drugs for disposable people").

Africa is stricken but often gorgeous. Meirelles gives us both the beautiful lands and shantytowns like oceanic deposits of rust and mud. And Tessa is the fierce burst of life, the intrigues refracted through her radiant daring and Justin's moving crush on her, which is briefly jarred by murmurs of infidelity.

The story is really about how Justin (Fiennes using his sweet, slightly wormy smile so very well) is pulled into the mucky truth, following Tessa's lead. Danger and corruption arrive as thugs and as suits; Bill Nighy is a lordly creep, and Danny Huston, his John Huston voice rhythm only partly doused by a British accent, is a squishy friend.

Meirelles is very sensually potent at showing the grimness, though with some of the showy, splatter-gun editing that made "City of God" an exciting but fairly exhausting work. The feeling for Africa (kids especially) pulses in sync with the marriage, but the scheming has the ramshackle murkiness that seems to be a Le Carre habit (a few rushed scenes, such as one in Holland, are confounding).

See it for Weisz, with and without Fiennes. And Africa, the good and the awful. And the passionate indignation brought to bear. The big themes are, like Africa itself, too much for this plot, but Tessa's eyes provide a wonderfully human mirror.

 

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.