Growing suspicions

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We’ve already had one top notch movie this year dealing with the problems of Africa in Hotel Rwanda. Now Brazilian director Fernando Meirelles (City of God) adapts a John Le Carre book to produce an even better film in The Constant Gardener.

Some might think a Le Carre book would have little relevance to today’s world, as his most famous works, like The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, are set during the Cold War. But here, Meirelles explores contemporary issues in the context of a riveting political thriller. He also proves that the bravura filmmaking of City of God was no fluke, dissecting and rearranging Le Carre’s linear narrative into an exciting cinematic work.

The film works on a number of levels - as a murder mystery, as a thriller, as a political and social expose and as a love story. Meirelles’ real skill is in tying all these threads into an cohesive and compelling whole that pays due reverence to each of them, but doesn’t allow any one to dominate the others.

The “gardener” of the title is Justin Quayle (Ralph Fiennes), a rather restrained, stiff-upper-lip diplomat at the UK Home Office in London. At a lecture, he meets the fiery Tessa (Rachel Weisz), an activist whose fervour for her cause initially overshadows her gentler side. But somehow the two click. When Justin finds out he’s to be posted to Nairobi, Tessa begs him to let her come with him - as his wife. After arriving in Nairobi, Justin’s duties at the British High Commission take considerable time; leaving Tessa free to pursue her causes with the help of a local worker Arnold Bluhm (Herbert Kounde). Tessa’s work takes her to a small town in Kenya. She and Arnold fly in, but make a fateful mistake and decide to drive back. After she’s found murdered, Justin tries to uncover what it is that led to Tessa’s death - a dangerous undertaking that leads him to corrupt local officials, powerful multinational drug companies and the corridors of British power.

What really allows The Constant Gardener to succeed is Meirelles’ assured directorial touch. Working from Jeffrey Caine’s script, he creates a film that grabs you in the first 10 minutes and keeps you along for its full 129-minute ride with its intriguing questions, magnificent settings and brilliant acting. The questions the film asks start with the seemingly obvious, but in typical Le Carre fashion, mushroom into bigger, more complex and far more difficult ones that seemed possible at the start. So while the film works wonderfully as a mystery and as a love story, it soon escalates to make the audience ponder exactly what is happening in Africa, and the extent to which we’re prepared to turn a blind eye.

Perhaps a little surprisingly, the film doesn’t feel preachy, despite the issues it explores. That’s because the characters (particularly Fiennes’) are so fully developed and well-written, that it’s almost impossible not to identify with them.

Fiennes gives an Oscar-calibre performance as Justin. This tour de force is up there with his very best; and that includes his previous nominated roles in The English Patient and Schindler’s List. His performance is an object lesson in external restraint and internal turmoil. Rachel Weisz is luminous as usual, adding real depth to her rather surprisingly small part. Danny Huston gets more screen time, and makes the most of it in an outstanding turn as Sandy Woodrow, a confidante of both Justin and Tessa. Bill Nighy (who seems virtually ubiquitous in British movies these days) pops up as a high-ranking diplomat.

Anyone with even the slightest interest in the state of the world today should see The Constant Gardener. Even if you have no political bent at all, this film still works as both a thriller and a romance. Brilliantly acted, stunningly shot in Kenya and constantly intriguing, The Constant Gardener is simply one of the best movies of the year so far.

David Edwards

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The Constant Gardener

Director: Fernando Meirelles
Cast: Ralph Fiennes, Rachel Weisz, Danny Huston, Hubert Kounde, Pete Postlethwaite and Bill Nighy
Release: Nationally on November 17, 2005
Rated: M