Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Religious Music & Entertainment
Review: The Constant Gardener (dir. Fernando Meirelles, 2005)

Review: The Constant Gardener (dir. Fernando Meirelles, 2005)

Last updated on: August 9, 2014 at 9:55 am by Peter T. Chattaway

Review: The Constant Gardener (dir. Fernando Meirelles, 2005) 2014-08-09T09:55:12-07:00 Peter T. Chattaway

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Based on a novel by John Le Carré, The Constant Gardener is more of a political message delivery system than a movie. It is also extremely well made. And unlike, say, The Interpreter — the recent Nicole Kidman-Sean Penn flick which paired Hollywood glamour with trite social parables, and ended up sending out muddled messages — this new film knows how to put its craftsmanship to the service of its message, which is fierce and focused throughout. Many political thrillers use the travails of the so-called Third World as an excuse to show glamorous people doing exciting things, but The Constant Gardener comes at it the other way ’round. Here, the mysteries and conspiracies take us deeper into an African situation which, the film assures us, reflects the reality on the ground.

Given the film’s broader agenda — its producers have already set up a charity to benefit the people of Kenya — it may seem churlish to complain about things like, oh, the script. But this is a fictitious story, not a documentary, and the script is the one place where the movie’s craftsmanship suffers. Near the beginning, Justin Quayle (Ralph Fiennes), a diplomat with the British High Commission in Nairobi, is watering his plants when he is told that his wife Tessa (Rachel Weisz), a passionate political activist, has died in what the authorities are saying might have been a bandit raid, but might also have been a crime of passion committed by a possible lover. The story then moves forward and backward in time, as Justin investigates the circumstances of Tessa’s death and relives the key moments in their relationship — and while it’s a pleasure to watch these actors work together, it’s a little difficult to see what their characters are doing together in the first place.

It turns out the first time they met was when Tessa stood up after one of Justin’s speeches and ranted at him about Britain’s involvement in the Iraq war; and it’s an open question whether the filmmakers intended to make her sound like a patchwork of Michael Moore-ish slogans from a couple years ago, or whether they honestly wanted to use this opportunity to squeeze another set of messages into their movie. At any rate, Justin, being a decent sort, offers to take Tessa out for coffee, just to show there’s no hard feelings — and before long, they’ve had sex. Then, a short while later, and even though they don’t know each other all that well, she suggests getting married so that he can take her with him to Kenya.

People do impulsive things all the time, but still, you have to wonder, why would a man who represents his government for a living marry a woman about whom he knows little beyond the fact that her “work” requires her to actively oppose his government? The film never really tells us, and it is difficult to sympathize when Tessa starts raising a stink at embassy parties and Justin asks her to tone it down a little. On the other hand, as Tessa begins to investigate the local activities of pharmaceutical companies (who she believes are using Africans as unwitting guinea pigs for their newly-developed drugs), and as rumors begin to circulate about her frequent association with a local doctor named Arnold Bluhm (Hubert Koundé), it is easy to see why Justin might begin to feel that she has been using him.

Fiennes does a brilliant job of communicating his character’s inner turmoil through subtle facial expressions and inflections of his voice. The moment in which Justin’s colleague Sandy Woodrow (Danny Huston) tells him of his wife’s death and possible affair — the camera stays on Justin’s face the whole time — hints at a world of pain and grief and regret, all of it buried under a veneer of resolve, as Justin takes it all in and simply replies, “Good of you to tell me, Sandy. It can’t have been easy.” Expect to see this clip on Oscar night.

But Justin does not simply keep a stiff upper lip. He needs to know why his wife died. And the more he digs into the evidence around her death, the more he learns about her life, and thus the more he learns about her work, and thus the more he comes to see that the people he works for really are as corrupt as Tessa believed. As Fiennes himself has noted, the irony of this story is that Tessa’s hot-headed passion for the truth does not accomplish all that much, at least not directly, because it gets her killed; but Justin’s very constancy, his quiet commitment to finishing the job he started, helps him to achieve her goals.

Unfortunately, as Justin hops all over the globe looking for answers, the story begins to feel increasingly compressed. Director Fernando Meirelles was nominated for an Oscar for his dazzling work on City of God, which told multiple stories set within a Brazilian slum, so he is no stranger to complexity; indeed, it is spellbinding to watch the fluidity with which he moves back and forth in time, to the point where Tessa becomes such a vivid presence that you almost forget she died in the film’s opening scenes. But the screenplay, by Jeffrey Caine, must of necessity cut a sprawling plot down to a couple of hours; and Justin, along with the audience, barely has time to adjust to each new country he visits — England, Germany, Sudan, Kenya again — before the story compels him to hop another flight.

Meirelles and his cinematographer, César Charlone, were clearly impressed by the story’s setting — both its landscape and its social milieu. And the images they create are often very striking indeed. But the film tries to cram too much information into its two hours, and it does such a good job of convincing us that things were amiss in the Quayles’ marriage that, when it tries to cast a more positive light on Justin’s memories, it doesn’t quite work. Justin’s love for his dead wife is moving, and haunting, but it rests more on the strengths of the actors — and Fiennes in particular — than on the material they were given to work with. Even if Tessa really did think the marriage was more than just a helpful way to further a political agenda, the filmmakers themselves seem to have settled for just that.

3 stars (out of 4)

–

Talk About It
Discussion starters

1. What sort of approach works best, when dealing with social or political problems? Tessa’s hot-headed zeal? Justin’s quieter diplomacy?

2. Does Tessa’s death accomplish anything? Could she have accomplished even more if she had done more to protect her own life? Does anyone else’s death accomplish anything?

3. Do you “buy” the relationship between Justin and Tessa? Do you think they would have ever gotten together in the first place? If so, why? If not, then how does this affect how you respond to the rest of the film?

4. Do you think a marriage can survive when people have very different political beliefs, or when they have jobs that might pit them against each other? Are some beliefs negotiable? If so, which ones? Is it possible to keep work separate from one’s domestic life?

5. How would you have dealt with Justin’s suspicions that his wife might have been seeing someone else? Should he have confronted her? If so, why, or how? If not, why not?

The Family Corner
For parents to consider

The Constant Gardener is rated R for language, some violent images and sexual content/nudity. Several scenes feature dead and badly damaged bodies, and much of the nudity involves a married couple, one of whom is pregnant in several scenes.

— A version of this article was first published at Christianity Today Movies.

Previous Post

August 30, 2005

Newsbites: Mary! Worlds! R.I.P. VHS!

Next Post

August 31, 2005 Cashing in on Aslan's evangelism potential

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Anglican Planet Articles BC Christian News BC Report Bible Movies Bible Review Blog Books & Culture Campus Times CBC Radio Christianity Today ChristianWeek Essays Faith Today Festival Cinemas Guide Film Journals Georgia Straight Interviews MB Herald National Catholic Register Salvationist Today's Christian Two Chairs Ubyssey Uncategorized Vancouver Courier Vancouver Sun

Select a Month August 2025 April 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 May 2024 February 2024 December 2023 May 2023 March 2023 November 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 September 2019 July 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 April 2012 January 2012 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 October 2005 September 2005 August 2005 July 2005 June 2005 May 2005 April 2005 March 2005 January 2005 December 2004 November 2004 October 2004 September 2004 August 2004 July 2004 June 2004 May 2004 April 2004 March 2004 February 2004 January 2004 November 2003 October 2003 August 2003 July 2003 June 2003 May 2003 January 2003 December 2002 November 2002 August 2002 July 2002 June 2002 May 2002 March 2002 January 2002 December 2001 November 2001 September 2001 August 2001 July 2001 June 2001 April 2001 March 2001 February 2001 December 2000 November 2000 October 2000 September 2000 August 2000 July 2000 June 2000 May 2000 April 2000 March 2000 January 2000 October 1999 August 1999 May 1999 April 1999 February 1999 January 1999 December 1998 November 1998 October 1998 August 1998 July 1998 June 1998 April 1998 March 1998 January 1998 November 1997 September 1997 July 1997 June 1997 April 1997 March 1997 February 1997 January 1997 December 1996 October 1996 September 1996 June 1996 March 1996 February 1996 January 1996 April 1995 November 1994 September 1994 September 1991

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

To whom did God give the commandments, engraved on stone tablets?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Peter Adam Moses Noah