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The Constant Gardener
is a taut, suspenseful and thought-provoking drama involving the
unscrupulous practices of major drug companies, writes Ervell
E. Menezes
In a remote area of northern Kenya, the region’s most dedicated social activist, the brilliant and passionate Tessa Quayle (Rachel Weicz) has been found brutally murdered. Tessa’s travelling companion, a local black doctor, appears to have fled the scene, and the evidence points to a crime of passion. Sandy Woodrow (Danny Huston), Sir Bernard Pellegrin (Bill Nighy) and other members of the British High Commission in Nairobi assume that Tessa’s widower, their mild-mannered and unambitious colleague Justin Quayle (Ralph Fiennes) will let things be. But they could not be more wrong. Justin’s career equilibrium has been exploded by the sudden death (read murder) of the woman he was deeply in love with. They were polar opposites. But haunted by remorse and jarred by rumours of his wife’s infidelities, Justin surprises himself by plunging headlong into a dangerous odyssey that goes by the name of The Constant Gardener, a taut, suspenseful and thought-provoking drama involving the unscrupulous practices of major drug companies who use the dark continent of Africa as their dumping backyard. Based on the best-selling novel of the same name by John Le Carre, the film is adapted by Jeffrey Caine and directed by City of God (about the street gangs of Rio) director Fernando Meirelles who by juggling with time and space and aided by swift cutting and editing, turns out an absolute thriller. Every 110 minutes of it. Shades of Pulp Fiction this thriller, densely tangled in intrigue and double-crosses, achieves a galloping momentum and raw immediacy in the hands of Meirelles who shot some of the scenes in the very streets of Berlin, Nairobi and London. There is a touch of docu-drama in the best Oliver Stone/Costa-Gavras tradition. Suspense is sprinkled like mustard and one can’t trust one’s shadow. It’s a case of vast grey areas and none knows what’s around the next corner. Ralph (pronounced Rafe Fiennes to rhyme with wines) Fiennes does well to register a total transformation of character to get under the very skin of the once-placid diplomat and he is ably supported by Rachel Weicz (of Mummy fame) who in the limited footage does enough to win the Best Supporting Actress Oscar. Danny Huston and Bill Nighy do little of note in their cameos; it is the strong narrative that is its best selling point. Claire Simpson’s taut editing and Cesar Charlone’s sweeping camerawork are other contributing factors in this compelling, not-to-be-missed thriller of how the haves take advantage of the have-nots. |
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