Hi, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab...
I’ve been teasing you guys over the course of the last few articles I’ve written, and not because I set out to do so. It just sort of happened. I’ve dropped cryptic hints about “the best film I’ve seen so far in 2005,” and today... well, today it opens. When I first saw CITY OF GOD, it blew my mind. And I actually picked it as my favorite film of that year. I’ve seen it three or four times since, something I don’t do a lot these days. For me to sit down and make the effort to watch something multiple times, it has to really make an impact on me.
I’ll be seeing THE CONSTANT GARDENER again this weekend at least once, and I’m sure I’m just warming up. This is a film that reminds me of all the reasons I love going to the movies. It is an affirmation that Fernando Meirelles is a world-class filmmaker to be reckoned with. And it is a powerful, deeply heartfelt story about our responsibilities in this world.
Based on a novel by John le Carre, one of the finest novelists in the spy genre, THE CONSTANT GARDENER defies easy categorization. Yes, there’s a spy story going on here, but that’s not what the film is “about.” There’s a drama about the globalization of industry and the way it preys on the poor in order to widen the gap between the third and the first worlds, but again... that’s not really what the film is “about.” The way Meirelles and his screenwriter Jeffrey Caine have adapted the book, it is first and foremost a love story about a man haunted by the fact that he may not have known the woman he was married to, a suspicion that leads him to chase her ghost no matter where it leads him. That love story is so beautifully told, so nuanced and smart and genuine, that it elevates everything else. The spy movie, the political drama, the documentary-like look at Africa... they are all informed by the depth of Justin’s (Ralph Fiennes) desire to learn who Tessa (Rachel Weisz) really was before she died, and in turn, there are stakes to this love story that involve everyone, not just these two poor lost souls.
The film opens on a tarmac in Africa as Justin says goodbye to Tessa. She’s headed off to do something for a few days, and they say a casual goodbye before she leaves. Almost immediately, we shock cut to a lonely road somewhere else in Africa. There’s an overturned jeep, the aftermath of an accident. Tessa’s been killed. Where she was... why she was there... these are questions that the entire film exists to answer. The moment where Justin is told of Tessa’s death is a perfect example of what it is that directors love about Fiennes. He barely moves, barely reacts in any outward way, but emotions play just beneath the surface, and his eyes say it all. It’s masterfully restrained work, and it makes it even more wrenching than any histrionics could. As Justin heads north to identify Tessa’s body, he flashes back on how he met her, setting up the sort of dual narrative threads that the film follows as we pinball backwards and forwards in time. Their first meeting isn’t just a clever way to bring the characters together... it’s also a very canny way of undercutting one of the potential hazards of filming material like this. The novel by le Carre is brutally angry, a simmering attack on the way Africa is being treated by the big money interests of the world, and it would be easy to turn this entire film into one long political screed. It would also be unwatchable. Justin appears in front of a group of reporters to give a speech on behalf of his employer, and one reporter in particular attacks him, asking tough questions he can’t possibly answer, then eventually just shouting at him about various human rights violations committed in the name of England in the wake of 9/11. The reporter, of course, turns out to be Tessa, and Mierelles is smart to let her go on and on, yelling about real political issues. The point of the scene isn’t whether you agree with her or not. It’s meant to illustrate just what happens when political discourse turns into a screaming match. No one listens. No one changes. No one is affected in any way beyond anger. It’s like Mierelles specifically shows us the wrong way to communicate an idea so that it will have an even greater impact when the film demonstrates the right way for us for the next two hours. The two of them fall into bed and a whirlwind romance, and Fiennes and Weisz generate real heat during these few brief lyrical moments. It’s almost cruel the way Mierelles cuts from these memories to Justin in the morgue having to look at the mangled, burnt remains of his wife.
What really blows me away about this film is how it ostensibly looks like Mierelles did what so many filmmakers do. He made his international art house hit, and then he was seduced by Hollywood into making his Big Hollywood Movie. Only... that’s not really the case. Sure, it stars some well-known actors. And, yes, it’s being released by a studio. But this film has more texture and depth and righteous anger and genuine emotion than any Big Hollywood Movie released so far this year. It’s like he decided to subvert the notion of the Big Hollywood Movie so he could make something that would otherwise never get made. He included elements of a spy film and elements of a thriller and he put in a few scenes that would be at home in any action movie, but all of that is at service of something greater. As the flashbacks build, we see the moment where Justin was getting ready to leave for Africa, and he’s visited by Tessa. She wants him to marry her and take her with him. At first, he thinks she’s kidding, but she presses the issue. “I barely know you,” he says. “You’ll learn me” is her irresistible response. That hard-cut to Africa the first time is like a shock to the system. This is an Africa we don’t see onscreen. This is a complex overwhelming place, shot in a style that makes it all feel like a documentary. This does not look like a backlot or like sets. There’s an authenticity to the film that is important considering its message.
When Justin starts to try to piece together the last days of Tessa, he realizes just how completely he failed at the challenge she posed. “You’ll learn me,” she said, so he sets out to do exactly that. He starts by trying to piece together exactly what she was up to with Arnold Bluhm (Herber Kounde), a young doctor who occupied much of her time. Justin seems to think that the worst thing he could learn would be that she was having an affair with Arnold, but the more he tries to unravel the mystery, the more he realizes that there are far worse things she could have been involved in. Pressure is brought to bear on Justin from his friends, people like Sandy Woodrow (Danny Huston), head of the High Commission, and Foreign Office Chief Sir Bernard Pellegrin (Bill Nighy), people who have groomed Justin, who watch over him, who count on him to do what they say when they say. Justin’s never been one to rock the boat. In fact, he’s always been more interested in his own garden than he has been in international policy. That’s what has made him such an ideal candidate for a life spent in diplomatic service.
It’s a long-held belief of mine that no one ever truly knows what goes on between a couple except for that couple. No matter how much their friends and family might think they have them figured out, and no matter how open they are about the details of their lives, there are things that transpire between a couple that are impossible to describe or voice to anyone else. Those are the things that Justin holds onto as he struggles with the opposition to his search for the truth. He knows in his heart that Tessa was real, that their marriage wasn’t just a convenience. There was a pregnancy that ended in a miscarriage, and Justin wisely focuses in on that as one of the primary motivators in Tessa’s actions. As the film builds its head of steam, more and more secrets are revealed, and Justin comes to understand just how high the stakes are in this conspiracy that crushed his wife and took everything from him. Because he’s got nothing left, Justin becomes a very dangerous man, willing to do anything, go anywhere, question anyone.
Gradually, the film humanizes the people of Africa for the viewer and for Justin. We see this foreign place through the eyes of Tessa. We see the faces of the people she tried to help. We get a sense of just how deeply she was committed to the cause she fought for. As Justin learns who Tessa was, he falls in love with her all over again, this time with a complete understanding of her, and that love drives him to extraordinary lengths. Saying anything else about this dense and intricate plot would be unkind. Suffice it to say that Mierelles pays off everything he sets up in spectacular fashion, making it both viscerally and emotionally satisfying.
Credit has to be given first to the amazing cast. This is the best work that Rachel Weisz has done in a film. Ever. She’s fascinating here, complete with rough edges and personality traits that would drive some people crazy. She feels real, and her courage is an uncommon sort. She takes strength from the frailty of the people she meets and she refuses to be cowed by people of obvious power. She’s an idealist but she has a realistic sense of how things work. Her one shortcoming is the fact that she doesn’t believe in tact, and no matter what, she tackles things head-on, which is exactly why her enemies know where she’ll be and when.
Ralph Fiennes is a great actor, and when he’s got the right material (SCHINDLER’S LIST, QUIZ SHOW, SUNSHINE, THE END OF THE AFFAIR), there are few people able to communicate pain and anguish with such sophistication. This is rich work by him, and even though there are definite thematic similarities to other films he has made, he manages to make Justin someone new, someone complete, someone we can believe in. He’s given phenomenal support in the film by Huston, who I’m not normally a fan of, and by Nighy, who has become one of my favorite working character actors in the last few years. Both of them are tremendously effective and seem to relish the material they’ve been given to play. Pete Postlethwaite also gives a great performance, showing up late in the film in a key role. What sells the reality of the film are all the unknown African actors who fill out the cast. They’re wonderful and grounded, and they keep this from being too overloaded with stars.
Cesar Charlone has got to be considered one of the rising stars in the world of cinematography after this and CITY OF GOD. His work is nimble and inventive, and he really does drop you completely into Africa, surrounding you with it in a way that almost makes you break a sweat in the theater. This terrifically dense story wouldn’t work if not for the sure hand of Claire Simpson as an editor. This may be the best cut film since Soderbergh’s one-two punch of OUT OF SIGHT and THE LIMEY. Simpson manages to create the sensation of memory, the way we can drop in and out of time based on certain stimuli, and she never makes it feel like we’re cutting to something because of exposition. It’s always natural, motivated, and we learn from each new moment. She’s come a long way from her start on C.H.U.D., and I can’t help but think that her time with Oliver Stone (PLATOON, SALVADOR, WALL STREET) is a big part of why her work here is so great.
In the two weeks since I’ve seen the film, there are images that have stuck with me, things I keep flashing back on. Children running alongside a car, thumbs up, smiles on their faces. A scene involving raiding warlords and a small village. The proximity of an exclusive golf course to a dense cluster of shanty housing. This is a film that gets under your skin if you let it. It dares you not to have a reaction. Because Mierelles doesn’t overtly preach, his message hits even harder.
It’s going to be a very busy fall, and there are a number of potentially great films coming out. If THE CONSTANT GARDENER does not end up on my ten best list by next January, then we will all be incredibly lucky, because that means there will be ten truly great and important films released in the next few months. I’ve heard that Focus Films is already gearing up to make PRIDE & PREDJUDICE their big Oscar movie of the year, the one they really push as their hopeful, but I think this is the movie they should be focusing on (pun slightly intended) for the next few months. It’s not going to be an easy sell because it’s a complicated picture, the type that’s never easy to fully explain in a trailer. It’s worth the effort, though. This is the kind of adult filmmaking we all say we want. Now let’s do the right thing and make this a genuine hit to reward Focus for the gift they’ve given us.
I’ll be back this week with my reviews of ELIZABETHTOWN, LORD OF WAR, and GOOD LUCK, AND GOOD NIGHT, as well as a huge DVD SHELF for the weekend. Lots to do, so until then...
"Moriarty" out.
