The Constant Gardener (2005)
Directed by Fernando Meirelles
Justin Quayle is a low-level British diplomat who has always gone about his work very quietly, not causing any problems. But after his radical wife Tessa is killed he becomes determined to find out why, thrusting himself into the middle of a very dangerous conspiracy.
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3 films that influenced The Constant Gardener
What critics say influenced The Constant Gardener
Ralph Fiennes stars as a mild-mannered member of the British High Commission in Kenya whose radical activist wife (Rachel Weisz) is brutally slain; investigating her murder, he gradually pieces together a tale of corruption involving the pharmaceutical industry that's every bit as horrific as (and much more timely than) Harry Lime's killing of babies with diluted penicillin in The Third Man.
It was the classic The Third Man that showed that such films succeed by relying on well-defined, intriguing characters who drive the story so that message (in that case, the evil of black-market drug dealing in post-war Vienna) simmers in a back seat.
Fiennes proves why he’s one of Hollywood’s best, Weisz earns that Oscar nomination, and Merielles gives some utterly amazing direction in a truly worthy successor to “The Third Man” with a sad, taut, and excellent global mystery.
David Fincher sharpened and expanded Chuck Palahniuk's "Fight Club," and Robert Redford captured Norman Maclean's pathos and poetry in "A River Runs Through It."
It is a style suited to the gifts of the Brazilian director Fernando Meirelles , whose great " City of God " (2002) told a story that was composed of countless tributaries that all flowed together into a mighty narrative stream.
The difficulty with The Constant Gardner is that Oscar-nominated director Fernando Meirelles (City of God) isn't interested in either character or suspense.
In his second film, Fernando Meirelles, the Academy Award-nominated director of the brilliant "City of God," moves out of the Brazilian slums and provides stunning images from inside the even larger shantytown of Kibera, located in the heart of Nairobi, Kenya.
It's the first film by Brazilian director Fernando Meirelles since his deservedly praised "City of God" three years ago, and his first-ever film in English.
It will take a long time or a phenomenal project for Fernando Meirelles to top his last film, 2002's dazzling (if slightly overrated) bullet-fest "City of God." "The Constant Gardener," though well-crafted and sufficiently disturbing, doesn't have near the impact of Meirelles' previous art-house hit.
Fernando Meirelles, codirector of City of God, stresses old-fashioned storytelling and takes full advantage of his cast, including Danny Huston.