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THE CONSTANT GARDENER Send This Review to a Friend
John le Carré’s novel “The Constant Gardener” has been turned into a dramatically powerful film that has something provocative to say with its conjecture about how people in third world countries are treated and how drug companies can manipulate them for profit and use deadly cover-up tactics, all with the complicity of high figures in government. But the basic reasons for the film’s artistic success rest on its personal story made vivid by the especially fine performances given by Ralph Fiennes and Rachel Weisz.
Director Fernando Meirelles (“City of God”) has packed action and suspense into this thriller, scripted by Jeffrey Caine. It is a drama involving a British husband (Fiennes) trying to find who killed his wife (Weisz) and why. Justin Quayle (Fiennes) is generally a withdrawn man, but the pain of what has happened propels him into his inquiry and what he discovers is jolting. Fiennes must also reflect his response to suggestions that his wife and her health worker colleague were lovers, and the complexity he brings to the part makes this one of his finest screen achievements.
Weisz is beautiful and dynamic as Tessa, an outspoken activist who is opposed to the exploitation that she sees. She is onto something and determined to follow through. The film is structured so that after her death, we get to see her in action by means of flashbacks, and Tessa emerges as a heroic figure.
The story is set in Kenya and, filming there, Meirelles gives us plenty of local color to enhance the atmosphere in which the disturbing events unfold. Here is a film that is attempting to say something urgent about the world in which we live. Carré dedicated his book to an activist, Yvette Pierpaoli, who as killed in a car crash in Albania that ended a life of trying to help the downtrodden, and he has acknowledged her example as helping inspire his book.
Entertaining and involving, “The Constant Gardener” ranks among the year’s best. A Focus Features release.
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