The Constant Gardener (2005)

8.5 Popcorn boxes

The excellent British film actor Ralph Fiennes plays the troubled Justin Quayle, who is married to the mercurial Tess (Rachel Weisz).  Tess is a strong, forthright doctor who is obsessed about social issues, from war to corporate greed.  At the beginning of the film, Tess is missing, and it's up to Justin, who loves his unconventional wife very much, to unravel the mysteries surrounding her death.

The film is non-linear, with frequent flashbacks, which took some getting used to.  So even though Tess is very much dead, she plays a large part in the film.  She's not an altogether sympathetic character, willing to trade on her looks and 'feminine wiles' to achieve her goals.  She's suspicious of a drug trial being conducted in Kenya.  Participants on the whole do well in a trial of a tuberculosis drug, dypraxa, but some end up very dead, due to side effects.  The company literally buries its failures, and Tess goes out looking for them.

The film is based on the book of the same name by John LeCarre.  LeCarre made his name writing Cold War thrillers such as 'The Spy Who Came in from the Cold', and 'Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy' (both superb books made into more than excellent films and miniseries).  He had a fallow period with the end of the East-West spy trade, and it took him a while to find new venues to explore.

LeCarre is a left-of-center writer, who has said that the corporate misdeeds in this film were just a 'holiday postcard' compared to what goes on in the pharmaceutical business.  What he doesn't explain, though, is how a bad drug like dypraxa would not be eventually found out.  I don't particularly share his paranoia, but I see where he's coming from.

Director Fernando Meirelles, a Brazilian by birth, turns in an excellent picture, capturing screenwriter Jeffrey Caine's vision of the LeCarrie novel.   Caine's screenplay was nominated for an Academy Award, as it should have been. 

The photography and location shots must be commented upon.  Africa, as portrayed in the film, is a sprawling, complex land of violence, extreme poverty, and natural beauty.

Rated R for violence and sexual content