the constant gardener review

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By Hank on 17th Nov 2005

Hank's Ratings

Starring Actor/Actress	Ray Fiennes, Rachel Weisz
Where Did You See It?	Cinema
Value for money	6/10
Overall value	6/10
Hank's recommendation

Good Points

Strong supporting cast

Bad Points

Too Slow
Dull
Failure to engage despite a good premise

General Comments

I watched The Constant Gardener last night which is a political thriller - political maybe, but thriller is stretching it.

This film centre's around the romance between Justin Quayle (Ralph Fiennes) and his wife Tessa (Rachel Weisz), the latter being the victim of a barbaric murder in Kenya. It is then up to Quayle, a British diplomat in Kenya, to undercover the real reason why his wife was murdered following a cover-up story from the Kenyan authorities.

We get to learn a lot about thanks to numerous flashbacks and she is pretty much the opposite to Justin - she is feisty & driven by a desire to right all the worlds wrongs, he is a poe-faced and straight laced diplomat who sees the bigger picture. In truth they aren't the most convincing of couples.

After some digging around Justin realises that his wife was onto something big after she uncovered some dirty dealing with British and Kenyan powerbrokers and a huge pharmaceutical company. Justin's battle for the truth then becomes the centrepoint of the film as he tries to get to the bottom of this conspiracy.

Sounds good doesn't it? That's what I thought but there was a lot about this film I flat out didn't like.

First off, it's a very one paced (slow) film, now I'm no action-hog and I'm not averse to a slow burner but this film is lethargic - it takes an eternity for anything of note to happen and the film not once attempts to change pace. I found this style of direction to really burden the film and in truth I thought this picture was basically dull.

I just couldn't get into it and despite some stellar support, I just couldn't bring myself to give a damn about any of the leads. Fiennes just isn't a guy you want to root for, he lacks passion, steel and that roguish quality that every leading male needs. I'm well aware this is how the character was written - to not be the quintessential run of the mill hero - but the good guy needs something, call it cliche but they need an X-Factor of sorts and the Quayle Man just ain't got it.

I also struggled to take to Weisz's character of Tessa - she had a bit of spunk and was a fesity heroine, but I for one couldn;t bring myself to care. This is where the problem lies with this film - you just don't care. Sure it's shot on location in Africa, sure it's an eye opener but the key ingredient to any films success is to get a reaction from the viewer - scare them, make them laugh, make them cry, have them on the edge of their seat, but whatever you do don't allow them to switch off, which is exactly what this film does.

It's a real shame, because the supporting cast is as good as you will find anywhere - guys like Bill Nighy, Pete Postlethwaite & Donald Sumpter as an ageing British spy.

If you want to see a brilliant film about Africa, get down to Blockbuster and watch Hotel Rwanda - that is everything this film isn't.

Total Respect: +1