The Constant Gardener

I just watched The Constant Gardener on DVD via my Netflix subscription.

Wow.

After having seen it, I do not understand why the film is not up for Best Picture. It is well directed, very well acted, and has an incredible, dense, provocative story. I've seen Good Night And Good Luck and Crash, both nominated for Best Picture, and feel that this movie is a more complete work than either of them (even though I enjoyed both of those films).

The movie has many layers and what you think is going to be one story (a sad, end-of-love story) turns out to be another story all together (a great political thriller and murder-mystery).

Ralph Fiennes does his usual superb job. As one of the best actors currently working, it still surprises me the variation in roles and context in which he dabbles. Is this really the same guy who was so deliciously over the top in Harry Potter (as Valdemort)? Is this the same guy who portraying the murderer with power, ruthlessness, and vulnerability in Red Dragon? I'm not even mentioning the work he did in Schindler's List and others. The guy is so subtle and his talent so broad... I can't wait to see his next role.

The Constant Gardener makes you think. Unlike so many movies today it doesn't lead you to its conclusions. It makes you work for them. It allows you to disagree and to add your own motivations to the characters within the story. The villains aren't all evil. And their very humanity and greed seems to make them that much more villainous. The hero isn't so clear-cut, either. He "doesn't get it" and it takes a lot of suffering before the truth of the world in which his wife lived sinks in and he accepts it. His quest for the truth feels more real to me because of his reluctance to accept it and the way in which he tries to learn it.

My few complaints about this movie are technical. I don't completely understand the director's choice to use the types of fade-cuts, out of focus shots, and over-diffusion of light and color. A few times, the out of focus seemed to coincide with a character's inability to think or his digression into the past, and that made sense. But I found no reason for the types of fade-cuts made or their inexact use nor the over-diffusion of color and light. Sometimes it seemed to represent the characters loss and other times his discovery. Sometimes it coincided with his emotions, good and bad, and other times it seemed to be apropos of nothing. It reminded me of Traffic, where the director used diffusion and color as a character; however, I didn't see the consistency of use here that Traffic benefitted from.

I recommend The Constant Gardener to anyone who liked Traffic, The Player, Memento or other provocative, thoughtful movies. I think you will be pleasantly surprised and thoroughly entertained.

My grade: A-