Thursday, June 21, 2007

Constant Gardener...very green

The Constant Gardener - Fernando Meirelles - 2005 - 7/10

Summary:

The movie picks up when Justin Quayle (Ralph Fiennes) learns that his wife (Rachel Weisz) has been murdered, and the early suspect is her "lover" Arnold (Hubert Kounde). Crushed by her death and the information that she had been cheating on him, Justin begins to investigate the matters of her death. His wife had been investigating a pharmaceutical company she suspected of falsifying drug tests. As Justin begins to uncover more and more, he learns that he has no one to trust, and that this scandal runs all the way to the top. But the question that keeps running through Justin's head, is whether his wife loved him. Uncovering who murdered her is important to him, but he longs to know, if their life together had been a sham.


Critique:

I'd heard mixed reviews of this movie from my friends and I was pleasantly suprised with this movie. Fiennes was great here, and I wish he'd make more movies - it seems like he's been AWOL since Harry Potter. Weisz is great too, and I can understand all the Oscar consideration. Her character is played perfectly, reminding me of Catherine McCormack's character from Spy Game, except much much hotter. The movie has a good pace, one that reminds me a of Syrianna a little bit. But this movie is much better because it is simpler - it is one story, or two rather (there are flashbacks of Fiennes and Weisz falling in love). And it works much better because you don't have to wait until the end to get the big picture, what is the message - instead you can see the themes throughout. I don't have much more to say beside the fact the Darren Aronofsky is one luck man.

Verdict:

Definitely worth a Blockbuster run.

If you liked this movie, watch...
...Syrianna
...Blood Diamond
...Traffic

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