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"The Constant Gardener"
Rachel Weisz.
Ralph Fiennes. Drama.
Synopsis: The
wife of a British diplomat stationed in Kenya is brutally murdered.
Review: This
was a really powerful film, perhaps one of the year’s ten
best.
Justin Quayle (Fiennes) is a less than ambitious British diplomat
serving in Kenya. He has a satisfying marriage with his wife Tessa
(Weisz), an activist/attorney, but she is so much his opposite that
he has begun to question her fidelity.
When her body is found
in a remote area of Northern Kenya, his suspicions grow even deeper.
This once reserved diplomat (who seems to have been more content
to tend to his garden than his wife) begins a journey for which
he is ill-prepared.
He soon learns that the
projects with which his wife was involved concerning the documentation
of the activities of multi-national pharmaceutical companies struck
more closely to home than he could have imagined.
His colleagues at the
British High Commission encourage him to leave the investigation
to them, but he refuses to comply with their suggestions. Soon,
Justin learns more about his wife after her death than he did while
she was alive, which pains him further.
The acting is superb
– Weisz, Fiennes, Danny Huston and Bill Nighy are all excellent.
This film is being marketed
as a mystery-based espionage film, but it feels more like a love
story on many levels.
The film is a bit difficult
to navigate for just a moment in the early going, due to the fragmented
timeline of events that occur in non-chronological order, but once
you’ve realized what has transpired, it comes into focus immediately.
This is probably the
best movie in theatres right now.
OVERALL
GRADE: B+
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