Movie: The Constant Gardener

Directed by Fernando Meirelles
Writing credits John le Carré (novel)
Main cast: Ralph Fiennes....Justin Quayle; Rachel Weisz....Tessa Quayle

After some time, I finally caught the time to watch The Constant Gardener (CG) played by Ralph Fiennes and Rachel Weisz. I must say I was quiet entertained and touched. The credit title background music (male’s voice chanting in an African tune) together with the image of an African kid face smiling, kind of pinched my heart at the end of the movie. The story was reminding me of Cause Celeb, a novel by Helen Fielding the author of Bridget Jones’ Diary. Somehow I felt that British society has deep feeling (about what they have done---most likely to be unfair treatments) to Africa, there were so many books digging this type of stories from that country. For me, I was wondering why any movies about Africa that I saw recently always have a tragic story; Hotel Rwanda was one of them.

Can’t complain about Ralph Fiennes, with eyes like that, I would believe any story he told me. Rachel Weisz was the one that took me by surprise. I watched several of her movies, and usually was left unimpressed. But on CG, she looked sooo beautiful! The lights on every scene captured her face so tenderly, and strongly accentuated her features at the same time. Cannot help thinking that the director was her big fan or something. There was even this part of a scene when she “proudly” stood naked with a big belly. She looked even more glowing then!!

The story was about Justin Quayle who first met Tessa on a press conference. Justin was the embassy’s representative and Tessa was one of the reporters. Only after a short relationship, Tessa asked Justin to marry her and take her to Africa with him. I loved it when Fiennes showed a surprised-happy-naïve expression when Rachel asked him this. So not like other Fiennes’ typical characters in his movies (perhaps I was the one who can not let Fiennes in The English Patient go! Hehe). In Africa, like the person she always has been even when she’s in UK, Tessa was deeply involving herself in the welfare of African people, especially in their health issues---more specifically on donated drugs tested to them. After her mysterious death, Justin became obsessed in finding the truth behind the tragedy. Along the way, Justin found out more about his country, colleagues and friends. The truth, that perhaps he was not prepared to know.

The suspense in CG was okay, not really as water tight as I expected, but I loved the editing of this movie. The flashback approach in the storyline was also quite neat!! The ending was also appropriate; I cannot image any other good ending for it. And again, at the end of the movie, the screen spoiled its viewer with Weisz’s gorgeous face.