The Constant Gardener: C
BY PATRICIA DRAZNIN
The big bad pharmaceuticals are at it again, this time dispensing experimental
drugs in the villages of Africa. This romantic thriller involves more
romance than thrills, but deserves credit for trying to entertain us
with suspense and morality. I wish I could say it kept me on the edge
of my seat. But honestly, I never got pulled into the story enough to
care.
Based on the novel by John Le Carré, The
Constant Gardener stars
Ralph Fiennes as Justin Quayle, the quiet career diplomat who loves
gardening, and Rachel Weisz as Justin’s wife Tessa, an outspoken
activist against the establishment. Any establishment. The story opens
in Kenya with Tessa departing on a junket with her local cohort Arnold,
but Justin is called soon after to identify her body. Tessa has been
murdered. Boo-hoo?
We flash back to the first meeting of Tessa and Justin, followed by
its consummation, followed by Tessa’s strong suggestion that Justin
take her with him to Africa as his wife. This was problematic, introducing
us to pivotal characters so superficially that they barely exist. In
Tessa’s case it’s deliberate; we are not supposed to know
her until the movie ends. But how about Justin? Anybody. The Key Grip.
It’s lonely out here; give us some reason to watch the movie.
In Kenya, the lovely Tessa becomes a rebel advocate for the natives,
whom she believes are victims of a drug conspiracy that is costing their
lives. Her fearlessness and flippancy are the stuff that only fiction
is made of, so she remains a genuine cardboard personality. The story
reveals choice details in flashbacks and then proceeds forward. Justin
begins to investigate Tessa’s murder and her secret activities,
risking his own life to learn the truth and to understand the wife he
hardly got to know. Welcome to the club, Justin.
The strengths of this movie lie in its fine cast and its colorful African
backdrop. And it dares to shoot in raw lighting or whatever cinematographers
call it, the kind that shows real faces with freckles and flaws. Perhaps
Le Carré’s bestseller succeeded where the movie did not.
But the whimsical treatment of a heavy topic took the life out of a
potentially engaging film.
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