MY DVD Collection - 09 Feb 2007

(Der ewige Gärtner [de])

UK / Germany 2005
d: Fernando Meirelles
Universal Pictures Video (Region 2 uk)

>> The Cast & Crew [click to show or hide]

The Brazilian co-director of ‘City of God’ has chosen an English-language adaptation of a John le Carré novel for his second feature and manages, against all the odds, to spin a wild yarn about the British High Commission in Kenya and its relationship to a corrupt pharmaceutical firm into a sweeping, stylish and relevant thriller that has its feet firmly on the ground and a heart that offers a tender take on its spy-thriller origins.
Two other recent attempts to address the flip-side of modern global politics in mainstream drama – Richard Curtis’s television film ‘The Girl in the Café’ and Sydney Pollack’s ‘The Interpreter’ – were spectacular failures; the first ignored the drama, the second forgot the facts. Here, Justin Quayle (Ralph Fiennes) is an unremarkable British diplomat; a reliable, if unadventurous, sort who is posted to Kenya soon after meeting Tessa (Rachel Weisz), an attractive activist he meets when she interrupts one of his dry lectures in London. They fall in love (her spontaneity amuses and complements his civil service sensibility), marry quickly and move to Africa – but Tessa dies in a mysterious car crash while travelling in a remote part of the country. Her suspicious death – revealed very early in the film – prompts Justin to investigate and allows Meirelles to leap back and forth in time, between London and Kenya, to tell of their relationship and the reality behind this tragedy.
Meirelles overcomes the complex (and not entirely digestible) intrigue of le Carré’s plot by paying close attention to the details of both character and location. He doesn’t reduce the high-level shenanigans, but instead adds intimacy and a breathless, jigsaw approach to story-telling. What emerges is an intimate, unlikely love story and a stimulating portrait of the contrast between existing communities and the cold bureaucracy of political and corporate interests in the developing world.
The sum of the parts of ‘The Constant Gardener’ is not entirely successful – there’s conflict between the finer points of the political thriller element and its parallel love story – but the parts themselves are so well-crafted that its themes translate well and it always engages, not least when stylishly packaged with Meirelles’ patchwork narrative style. And on a purely visual level, this portrait of Kenya – from remote barren landscapes to the slums of Kibera – is stunning.
— DC, Time Out Film Guide
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Brazilian director Fernando Meirelles' follow-up to his startling CITY OF GOD (2003) is a sophisticated, deadly serious thriller that sticks close to John le Carré's sobering novel of diplomatic intrigue and corporate shenanigans in Africa. ... Rather than trading le Carré's downbeat but agonizingly true-to-life ending for something more palatable, Meirelles has crafted a rare sort of thriller that refuses to resolve real-life issues for the sake of feel-good entertainment. While not nearly as kinetic as CITY OF GOD, the film shares its grainy, blown-out look (both were shot by cinematographer Cesar Charlone), and in its own quiet way, is just as explosive.
— Ken Fox, TV MovieGuide
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For an English-language movie with recognizable stars, its measure of social maturity can be startling, but it's also a bristling demonstration of the formal difficulty of liberal narrative, and of ambitious third-world tourist-cinema. When does the rapturous filming of, and gazing upon, poverty become capitalization, and class shame become entertainment? ...
But perhaps the more basic kvetch to make is about Meirelles's style, a cannonballing mélange of hack-cuts, impressionistic close-ups, and tropical swelter. "City of God" had a racy, comic-book persona to rev up, but le Carré's story is a sober odyssey. I wouldn't call "The Constant Gardener" exploitative, even if it does exploit our grateful distance as viewers from the vast Kenyan slum of Kibera, and cinematographer César Charlone's irradiated images of wholesale destitution. But look to films made by Africans, and none of them indulge in this sensationalized, sun-scorched hyperbole. A middle-classer from Rio, Meirelles is just as dedicated to pounding home a lurid idea of dangerous African otherness as any commercial Brit filmmaker—Ridley Scott, say, or Richard Attenborough.
I can't hold much of a grudge in any case, because although le Carré's story may seem predictable and unduly focused on the plight of a pale, wealthy Old Worlder adrift in a sea of needy East Africans, the movie's human material is masterfully manipulated. With the exception of Danny Huston—casting directors, wake up—sporting a freshman-theater-major BBC accent, the cast lives in full four dimensions, seamlessly invoking offscreen pasts and between-the-scenes lives. Attaining credibility in your rendition of romantic intimacy is no small matter; neither are Weisz's natural warmth, throaty laugh, and eye-poppingly believable pregnancy prosthetic. Even Bill Nighy, as a mendacious British High Commission VIP, manages to be both viciously wry and absolutely authentic.
For all of its earnest political self- pickling, "The Constant Gardener" has the bite and fiber of a college-educated-adult experience, a fact that distinguishes it in the "Harry Potter" Era. If it's to be taken as evidence as well as critique of postcolonialism's double-cutting blade, so be it.
— Michael Atkinson, Village Voice
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One of the best elements in the adaptation is Caine's blending, like le Carré's, of the past and the present so that one can enrich the other. There are no stilted flashbacks: both past and present are treated as present, which gives the film a texture of depth.
— Stanley Kauffmann, The New Republic
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"The Constant Gardener" begins with a strong, angry story, and peoples it with actors who let it happen to them, instead of rushing ahead to check off the surprises. It seems solidly grounded in its Kenyan locations; like "City of God," it feels organically rooted. Like many Le Carre stories, it begins with grief and proceeds with sadness toward horror. Its closing scenes are as cynical about international politics and commerce as I can imagine. I would like to believe they are an exaggeration, but I fear they are not. This is one of the year's best films.
— Roger Ebert