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Reviews |
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Source:
rec.art.movies.reviews newsgroup
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Director: Fernando Meirelles Cast: Ralph Fiennes, Rachel Weisz, Danny Huston, Daniele Harford, Hubert Kounde Screenplay: Jeffrey Caine (John Le Carre) MPAA Classification: R (language, some violent images and sexual content/nudity)
While I was at the Telluride Film Festival, I spoke with Focus Feature's Director of National Publicity, Harlan Gulko about Fernando Meirelles' new film, which I hadn't seen at the time, The Constant Gardener. All Gulko could say about the project was, "Fernando Meirelles is a rock star." After thinking about that response, I suppose that's really the only way to describe such a director: a rock star.
Meirelles' last film, City of God (Cidade de Deus), was the project that launched him into the American film scene, earning him a nomination for Best Director at the Academy Awards. The film was so affective and heartbreaking that it caused the President of Brazil to begin an effort to better the living status of Rio de Janeiro's suburbs. But as "message" oriented the film was, there was more story than moral. I think the same can be said of his latest outing, The Constant Gardener. The film exploits the evils of pharmaceutical corporations to great effect, but allows the core of the story to focus on a man's growing love for his wife after her murder.
The film is based on acclaimed spy thriller novelist John le Carre's book of the same title. Having never read any of le Carre's writing, all I can say in terms of its adaptation is that it's gotta be a pretty damn good book to live up to what Meirelles has done with it. I can scarcely imagine a version without Meirelles' lush, mesmerizing visual style.
It opens with a shot of a mangled jeep smoking in flames, ruined in the middle of the North African Desert. In a town in Nairobi, Sandy Woodrow (Danny Huston) enters Justine Quayle's (Ralph Fiennes) office at the British High Commission and informs him that the corpse of his wife, Tessa (Rachel Weisz) was just found mutilated in the desert, with her guide Arnold Bluhm (Hubert Kounde) missing from the scene. To tell you any more would give away secrets. Suffice to say that Justin begins to look further into the investigation and realizes there may be more to it than what the British High Commission tells him.
Up against other conspiracy thrillers like The Interpreter, The Constant Gardener's holes don't really go too deep. The solution to the mystery is essentially revealed very early in the film, with the specifics being fleshed out later. The real story, and what the film primarily focuses upon, is Tessa. The identity of her killer is figured out easily, but what she was doing as she was killed is where the real conspiracy lies. Meirelles, as is common with non-western filmmakers, ends the film abruptly. This will simply leave some audiences choking in the dust of the credits (as it did to me), but give yourself some time to think it out and the complexity of Tessa's story will hopefully come together.
But Tessa's story goes beyond her involvement with the pharmaceuticals, and most affectively lies in her love for Justin. In the opening act, their relationship seems mismatched; Justin being the quiet, diplomatic type that would rather push papers and policy than do grunt work on the streets, and Tessa being exactly the opposite: an Amnesty International activist spending most of her time on the streets of Nairobi with the citizens plagued by TB. But when Tessa dies, Justin seems to take on both roles. He learns what she was fighting for and falls further and further in love with her, making the story more and more tragic. The screenplay works this story arc with flashbacks to Justin and Tessa's relationship through the years, causing our emotions to parallel Justin's because of the non-linear storytelling
Early on, Mike Newell (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire) was considered for the film's director. Honestly, I don't believe The Constant Gardener would be half of what it is without Fernando Meirelles. His sense of visual style is so incredibly honed that with every shot he achieves the scene's tone before a single word is spoken. His cinematographer, Cesar Charlone's, handheld work elevates scenes into a visceral, hyper-realistic version of reality. There are also some interesting motifs with colors that continue throughout the film. Different locales can be identified simply by their color palettes.
Some will probably call Meirelles' style overbearing and distracting. But, in my opinion, his version of The Constant Gardener is elegant. For a storyline that focuses on exploits in poverty-stricken North Africa, Fernando's style is almost imperative for telling John le Carre's story with complete justice.
By : Sam Osborn (http://www.samseescinema.com)
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Source:
rec.art.movies.reviews newsgroup
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While an adaptation of a 2001 John Le Carré novel might not seem the obvious next project from the Oscar(r)-nominated director of "City of God," Fernando Meirelles manages to make what might have been a straightforward political thriller his own. Meirelles's technique--his bravura camerawork and crisscross editing--aren't as flashy or necessarily noticeable as they were in his stunning 2002 Brazilian film debut but they're there nonetheless, heightening the tension between the combatants, imbuing the film with a realistic world vision, especially in the crowded marketplaces, and bringing--romantically as well as tragically--the relationship between Tessa (Rachel Weisz) and Justin Quayle (Ralph Fiennes) to the fore. It's a technique that sets "The Constant Gardener" apart from your typical Jason Bourne spy fare. Set in a remote area of Northern Kenya the film backtracks from activist Tessa's suspicious (and easily foretold) death to the events leading up to the incident in which her husband, an unassuming English diplomat and, yes, constant gardener, begins to suspect a major cover- up on the part of the British High Commission. Could they be linked to a global pharmaceutical company that treats "disposable" AIDS patients with experimental drugs? Tessa tries to find out, fatally. The flashback structure works exceedingly well--knowing Tessa's fate early on does not spoil the outcome as one might expect since it's the getting there that proves fruitful--and Weisz and Fiennes both bring a secular credibility to their roles, she with her pregnant prosthesis and brash appeal, he with his emaciated forlornness. And while the crimes against humanity are never really quantified, in Meirelles's world at least, quality would appear to be a constant.
By : David N. Butterworth (http://members.dca.net/dnb)
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