dimanche, mai 07, 2006  On the recommendation of many online friends, I bought and watched The Constant Gardener. I had no idea what it was, I just watched.And it was brilliant. The story is insanely convoluted, and yet it unwinds so poetically. The treatment of the subject matter (pharmaceutical companies testing drugs in Africa, killing people, and then covering it up) is presented, but not overblown. Shy junior English diplomat meets passionate political activist, they get married, move to Kenya. She gets killed, he suspects she's having and affair with her partner (he turns out to be gay), follows her paper trail, which leads him back to the English government. Sounds like spy-espionage-Alias? It's not. At its heart, it is a love story - and get this - it won't make you cry. (It'll just make your heart bleed.) [next part will not make sense unless you've watched the movie.] I also loved the fact that he didn't really understand his wife - not really. I think a lot of movie romances gloss over that rather impt fact: we're all not mind-readers, we just make do. After she died, it was so clear that he just never really *got* her, not really, you know?. And then when he was on the plane, with that little girl, I was just... blown away by how far his character had travelled, both metaphorically and literally. Later when he went to the badlands to wait for his death... it was just beautiful, him talking to her as if she were there. The whole idea of her feeling "safe" with him, and him feeling "home" with her... it makes me want to cry buckets and scream that it's not fair! But life rarely is, and so we ... we just make do and muddle about the best that we can. Ralph Fiennes is amazing, and my next trip to the video shop is to get The English Patient. I cannot understand why he didn't win anything for this movie; his performance in this movie is simply phenomenal. Maybe I should just watch all of his shows. No, warning me against The Avengers is too late - I've already seared my corneas on it. [The Constant Gardener] |
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