While on assignment in western Africa, I caught _The Constant Gardener_
in one of the hotel TV channels. I was pleasantly surprised the
Arabic countries-funded channels showed anything other than blockbusters, ultra-violent flicks, and soccer reruns, although there were plenty
of those too. (Can't complain about soccer when I managed to catch
the ridiculous and sublime Liverpool comeback against Dortmund in the
Europa League semifinal -- what U.S. channel would carry such a
second-tier competition?)

The film might have been set in Eastern rather than Western Africa,
but the slums, the poverty, and the ubiquitous orange dirt looked
all too familiar to me. Fernando Meirelles's film, based on John
Le Carre's novel, was about British diplomat Justin (Ralph Fiennes)'s
quest to find the truth behind the murder of his humanitarian
activist wife Tessa (Rachel Weisz) in Kenya. He uncovered a deadly
conspiracy implicating a drug company doing illegal drug testing on
Africans, and the British foreign service.

This must be Ralph Fiennes' best, most nuance, and most anguished
performance, easily surpassing that other African film of his
(_The English Patient_) Compared to the David-Lean landscape of
_The English Patient_, _The Constant Gardener_ is urban and gritty;
it does not permit much romantic illusion. The film effectively
differentiates the slums of Nairobi (in newsreel style handheld)
and the stately, plush British offices and golf courses. The
contrasting styles indict the colonial mindset and sense of
entitlement that still afflicts Europe-Africa interactions.
(And nowadays, probably Chinese-Africa interactions as well, as
I have seen myself in a hotel where the nightly rate was close
to half of the nominal per-capita annual income of the average
citizen.) I have never liked Fernando Meirelles; his _City of
God_ would fit well with the other pointless, ultraviolent flicks
routinely showed in Africa hotels, and his _360_ and _Blindness_
were award-baiting, quasi-"Mexican New Wave" anti-globalization
rants, but with a very good script and source material, his
hyperactive jump-cutting style served the story admirably.

Rachel Weisz won a best supporting actress Oscar for her role.
She is idealistic and alluring, but the part is too underwritten
and one-dimensional for my liking. It is only later, when she
starred in _Definitely, Maybe_, _My Blueberry Nights_, and
_Agora_ that she became one of my favorites.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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