The film, an adaptation of a John Le Carré novel of the same name, is a tapestry of heart-rending events and intense emotions that is completely enveloping. Although the movie's pace may not be as lightning fast as other politically-fueled pictures, its emotional weight is more than enough reason to keep any movie-goer enthralled. It isn't your typical American blockbuster-it's not more interested in satisfying the viewer than in retaining its integrity. "The Constant Gardener" doesn't shelve its creativity or its story for fear of a less entertaining movie.
"The Constant Gardener" deals with love, trust, betrayal, espionage and death. The film opens with a great tragedy, foreshadowing the tone of the reality which awaits us. We see a husband and wife say goodbye to each other and soon learn that they will never be together again. In the next scene, we see how the same couple met at a lecture. He's Justin Quayle (Ralph Fiennes), a by-the-book British diplomat. She's Tessa (Rachel Weisz), a fiery activist who verbally attacks Justin mid-speech. Their connection is instant, and the fast friends become fast lovers. She accompanies him to Africa, where he is dispatched under the British High Command in Nairobi, and the two marry.
Writer Jeffrey Caine explores the lives of both the main characters and the lives of those who surround them in a nonlinear way. This distortion of time allows for a closer inspection of Justin, permitting us to see his persona both while Tessa was alive and after her horrific murder. We see how he has changed-how she changed him, as his mind fights the juxtaposition and entanglement of past and present.
Justin loved Tessa, but we learn that he did not quite know her. He learns that she kept secrets, and he resolves to uncover these secrets because he does not fully believe the "official" rumors that Tessa and her friend Arnold (Hubert Koundé), the African doctor who was in her company, were on a romantic getaway, and that their deaths were acts of random violence.
As he sets out to find the truth, obstacles meet him at every turn, danger around every corner. He discovers that at the center of the labyrinth he has entered lies the shocking and covert dealings of the drug companies that run rampant throughout Africa. Tessa believed that the drug companies were performing experimental testing on countless Africans without their full acknowledgement, and that if death occurs as a side effect, not only is the data covered up, but the life is also erased. Justin realizes that by investigating what she saw as a conspiracy, Tessa was unjustly eliminated by the very people he considered to be his friends. He must use illegal means to find the answers in order to finish his wife's work and bring a greater meaning to her death.
As Justin travels from Britain to Africa, the contrasts in color and lighting give this epic-feeling film a European flair, which puts it far above the typical American thriller ("The Interpreter" comes to mind). Cinematographer César Charlone gives Britain a steely and cold feel, while Africa, in great contrast, is rich, vibrant and very much alive.
The film's dialogue is also a refreshing change from the contrived screenplays of today, which seem to aspire to sound as witty as possible, usually to no avail. This dialogue is natural and so "not" Hollywood-especially during the scenes between Fiennes and Weisz. The required chemistry is there, but it's the real kind-not the fabricated movie kind-without the necessary Hollywood elements that are usually in great abundance in most other films.
The film's message, which did not seem overly didactic, is an important one. It raises questions and fuels discussion over the often overlooked activities and power of the pharmaceutical companies. Their understanding that so called "non-important lives" end in "non-important deaths" is not globally understood. Although the film doesn't offer a great deal of surprises as it ends, it forces viewers to leave theaters wanting to discuss it, which is an achievement in itself.