The Constant Gardener

Ralph Fiennes stars in Fernando Meirelles’ THE CONSTANT GARDENER, a Focus Features release.
Photo by Jaap Buitendijk. ©2005, Focus Features.

 
“What were you and Arnold Bluhm doing in the Nairobi Hilton?”

This is the question written in an e-mail that plants seeds of curiosity in Justin Quayle (Ralph Fiennes), a diplomat with the British High Commission. His wife, Tessa (Rachel Weisz) explains she was meeting Bluhm, but doesn’t particularly elaborate upon why.

Before this question can be more clearly answered, Justin sees Tessa off on her trip to northern Kenya. The screen washes to near-white; conveying this is the last time Justin will see her. A jeep is found overturned on an isolated path—possibly robbers, the local police suggest. Justin is visited by Sandy Woodrow (Danny Huston), a colleague of Tessa’s, who informs him that they may have found her body. After identifying her remains at the morgue, Justin is ashen. He begins to recollect things one may rather wish to forget, in such a state of anguish.

The two met at a diplomatic lecture. She challenges his position, arguing that he is the “labrador” sent to defend the inequitable actions of the government and its marriage to corporate interests. This alienates the others in attendance, but Justin is oddly attracted to her tenaciousness. The two meet for a drink, then sex, then marriage and pregnancy. Initially, I thought the film proceeded somewhat roughshod through these details. However, having met my wife first as adversaries in philosophical debate, and having proposed to her just six months later, I can certainly relate to the seeming distortions of time that occur when one is that much in love. Additionally, the love story itself, while the central focus of the film, is not told through the expositionary flashbacks as much as it is told through Justin’s devotion to resolving how Tessa died.

We learn in one memory that they moved to Africa together. Tessa asks him to take her with a sense of urgency in her voice that sounds rather double-edged. This, coupled with the letter, and Tessa’s abject hatred of the pharmaceutical industry (at a social function she asks one industry chief, “Were the pills converted to the limo you arrived in?”), suggest that there’s more to Tessa than she lets on. But there’s no big mystery there. The intriguing part of this film is in how Justin is unwittingly drawn into completing the work that, while Tessa was alive, he was employed to discourage.

On one fact-finding mission, he is stopped by the local police and gives the explanation that he has only come to visit the boy, Kioko Kilulu (Donald Apiyo), brother of a 14 year old girl, Wanza (Jacqueline Maribe), who died in a hospital. The local inspector says, “You’re not a very good liar.”

Justin wryly replies, “Well, I haven’t risen very high.”

He’s investigating the connection between Wanza’s death and Tessa’s research. I don’t want to jump ahead of myself here and give away the story. Woodrow discouraged Tessa from investigating this connection, just as he discourages Justin. However, one gets the sense Woodrow is merely covering his own ass… and, incidentally, someone else’s. That would be Sir Bernard Pellegrin (Bill Nighy). That he’s protecting him is no big secret, but why he is I will avoid revealing.

What’s interesting about the process by which this mystery unfolds lies in the parallel between Justin’s career as a diplomat and his interest in gardening. Gardeners and diplomats both require patience. Fiennes manner is slight, carefully paced. He understands he’s treading dangerous ground as he begins to get indications of mounting threats against him and other senior officials close to the matter. However, instead of running about town, and demanding answers from everyone, Justin negotiates the path tepidly. This is a role that Fiennes plays with tremendous skill, as with the perverse indifference of Amon Goeth in “Schindler’s List.” A character utters a line that confirms Justin’s suspicions about him. He remains still, with the exception of the almost imperceptible shift of his adam’s apple.

Throughout this gnarled course of events, Justin is unswerving in his dedication to an ideal, “Diplomacy is the very map and marker of civilization.”

There isn’t terribly much to be said about Rachel Weisz’s performance. This is largely due to the way in which the story is edited, I think. We see the romance from the point of view of Justin’s memories, which consist largely of the happier moments in their lives. We don’t get so much more than smiles and tender reactions from Tessa. There is one scene involving a promise (and a deception) on her part, in which the performance convinces both the other character and us that her promise is genuine.

Some will not be able to resist the temptation to dwell on labeling her as another fanatic, and this film as a propaganda piece. However, the world is full of fanatics. Some are passionate about nonsense. This one happens to be passionate about two very real problems: The rampant spread of disease in Africa, and the willingness of pharmaceutical companies to exploit it for disproportionate gain by deceptive practices just this side of illegal. It is an interesting parallel to the upcoming Andrew Niccol film, “Lord of War,” which chronicles the ascent of an international arms dealer and exposes some unsettling truths about the facilitation of third world wars by first world nations.

When confronted directly with one of the dying, Justin says, “Be reasonable. There are millions of people. They all need help.”

Rachel rebuts, “Yeah, but these are three people we can help.”

“The Constant Gardener” is shot largely in a documentary style—telling a different kind of story. There are numerous handheld shots meant to put you in Justin’s shoes. The jarring camera movement can be irritating at times, but that’s a minor quibble given all that works wonderfully. We see contemplative, recurring themes, including cut-aways to birds scattering (foreshadowing) and sequences of African life including a brief but topical scene of locals in a shanty village performing a play about AIDS. Other shots contain elements both naturally and artificially out of focus. There are yet other intelligent uses of depth and motion to steer your attention from one end to the other of Justin’s eyeline—a statue pointing. As the camera pulls away from the statue, we realize it’s pointing at another bust—again foreshadowing.

The director wisely avoids the cliché of hammering us with shot after shot of the victims of the cruelty of pharmaceutical economics. Instead, the story remains centered on our constant gardener, Justin, and his relentless search for facts. He cannot bring back his beloved wife but, hopefully, his effort will help him understand and appreciate the cause for which she died.

The Constant Gardener • Running Time: 2 hours 9 minutes • Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 • Dolby® Digital surround sound in select theatres • MPAA Rating: R for language, some violent images and sexual content/nudity. • Released by Focus Features

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