Ahoy, squirts! Quint here with a review of the upcoming follow-up flick from Fernando Mereilles (CITY OF GOD) called THE CONSTANT GARDNER. This review is very positive and I, for one, am very much looking forward to this movie. However I must object to "Jim Carrollesque" trying to steal my woman. It's written on the wind and whispered by the gentle waves of the sea that Ms. Weisz is destined to become the bride of Quint some day. At least that's what the psychic hotline told me. It's so not fair... Aronofsky is a cool, nice guy, super-talented, good looking and on top of all that has a hottie sweetheart of a girl... Some guys get all the luck!
Anyway, on with the review! There are some mild spoilers... I can say I know something that I didn't know before I read this review, even though "Jim" claims it's common knowledge. So, not enough to spank this with a spoiler tag, but if you don't know anything about this movie just be warned you'll get a good idea of what the flick is. Enjoy!
I don't know if you guys would be interested in this film, Harry. But I'll give you guys my thoughts anyway. By the way-I've written several other reviews and sent them to you but nothign has ever come of it. Well, let's see if it works out differently this time.
Anyway, I saw the Constant Gardener tonight with Ralph Fiennes, Rachel Weisz and Bill Nighy. There was also a reception afterwards with Rachel Weisz and Fernando Mereilles, the director. His other film credits msot famously include 'City of God'. I'll get to that later.
Anyway, saw the film and thought it was excellent. The story is that in a remote area of Northern Kenya, activist Tessa Quayle (Rachel Weisz) is found brutally murdered. Tessa's companion, a doctor, appears to have fled the scene, and the evidence points to a crime of passion. Members of the British High Commission in Nairobi assume that Tessa's widower, their mild-mannered and unambitious colleague Justin Quayle (Ralph Fiennes), will leave the matter to them. They could not be more wrong. Haunted by remorse and jarred by rumors of his late wife's infidelities, Quayle surprises everyone by embarking on a personal odyssey that will take him across three continents. Using his privileged access to diplomatic secrets, he will risk his own life, stopping at nothing to uncover and expose the truth - a conspiracy more far-reaching and deadly than Quayle could ever have imagined.
The story is is told in quite a complicated fashion, working from the middle of the end to the beginning and back again. It is done in such a way that the film makers tell essentially two seperate stories right alongside each other. Those are Tessa's story of her activism and the story of her husband's desperate search for the truth after her death. By the way, it's no secret she dies, so I am not labeling this fact as a spoiler. Anyway, a lot of the film is shot in a very low-budget way. Hand held cameras, the shots are fairly dirty and the sound quality isn't always perfect, but apparently they did this because they were filming in residential shanty towns just outside of Kenya and they wanted to capture the real way people lived without disturibing anybody or anything. Despite the seeming rush job the film is photographed beautifully and the actors really get to show their range and versatility. The characters go from stiff and boring to sexy and crazy to desperate and angry, or crazy again. and the actors slide through their various emotions and character arcs seamlessly. Which I think was probably very difficult to do in such harsh envorionments like the middle of a Kenyan shanty town, filled with over a million people!
Rachel Weisz gives the deepest performance and is, as always, stunningly beautiful. She plyas a selfess activist very well. But I think the biggest kudos should go to Mr. Fiennes for having the most layered character to work with. He has, by far, the largest character arc. He has to go from a work-horse to a sensual, loving husband, to a man hellbent on avenging his wife's untimely demise. He really shows range. He is convincing as a guy who is very detached and to turn around and basically embody his murdered wife's passionate ideals and motivations; truly great acting on his part. Everybody was up to par with the script and with whatc the story required of them.
The film also has a real message about what the drug companies are really up to in Africa. I mean, I don't want to get too political but how could I not? But on a note, the AIDs epidemic is not particulcarly dissected in the film, but the various white factions behind the scenes are shown in detail, from the politicians,, both good and bad, (Ralph Fiennes and Bill Nighy) to the activists (Rachel Weisz) to the guys who run those evil pharmeceutical companines that claim to help but are only sucking at the livelyhood of so many poor and impoverished people.
So all in all the film was exceptionally well made and the coolest part was that those involved seemed very passionate about the project. Mereilles talked at length about the AIDS work done in Brazil, his native land, and Rachel Weisz explained how the production actually set up a charity in the name of the film, that will help provide medicine and clean bathrooms and general supplies to the town in which they filmed. They both seemed truly passionate about the project.
After the film and the Q&A I got to speak in person with the very beautiful, stunning, talented Rachel Weisz. She explained that the book the film was based on was banned in Kenya because of it's sad depiciton of the AIDS epidemic and that the way they got to film the story on location was that it provided income for the local businesses and more films started to choose Kenyan locations after Constant Gardener filming had wrapped. I thought this was also cool. Aww Rachel, you're so fucking hot....ahem....anyway....
Phil Bronstein was also at the reception and boy is he a dick. Grade A motherfucker. That's just a little personal note to anybody who is aware of this ass-hole publisher, and former hubby to beautiful Sharon Stone.
If you put this review on your site, please call me: Jim Carrollesque
Thanks, Harry. You're my hero.
