Release Date:
Wednesday, August 31, 2005
No, The Constant Gardener is not about a guy named Jose who lives for leaf blowers and weed killer. Instead, it's a rare movie thriller that's utterly engaging without relying on extravagant special effects and product placements. Director Fernando Meirelles—the badass responsible for the Oscar-nominated City Of God, about young hoodlums in the streets of Rio—makes his English language debut with this near-perfect screen adaptation of the John LeCarré bestseller. Ralph Fiennes delivers one of the year’s best performances as a meek British diplomat living in Kenya on a journey to discover how his young activist wife (the stunning Rachel Weisz) died after uncovering a potential scandal involving a major pharmaceutical corporation. In true Hitchcockian fashion, his quest takes him on unexpected twists and turns over two continents. Most movie suspense thrillers are about as surprising as trick-or-treaters on Halloween, but Gardener not only turns the genre on its head—it paints an unforgiving portrait of the real-life drug problems currently ravaging third-world countries. The intricate plot takes time to heat up and demands your full attention, so make sure to take your ADHD meds along with your usual smuggled sixer—otherwise, you'll miss a unique film that'll have you buzzing long after the last sip goes down.