It looked like the movie was going to be The Constant Boredom, but THE CONSTANT GARDENER is a gripping thriller once it
sucks you in. Ralph Fiennes plays Justin, a mild-mannered British diplomat stationed in Kenya who investigates why his activist
wife Tessa (Rachel Weisz) was murdered. It has something to with the politics of drug companies in the third world and a TB
drug called Dipraxa.
"The whole machine is driven by guilt."
THE CONSTANT GARDENER is an interesting film that shows Kenya and features a great cast. Some scenes feel like a documentary
while others feature different saturations of color from scene to scene. I don't really agree with why Justin had to do what
he did at the end of the film, but THE CONSTANT GARDENER ia a thriller driven by a man's love (for his wife) to finish what
she started.
VIDEO: 1.85:1 (Anamorphic Widescreen)
Image detail is fine. Aliasing does crop up in one scene in London and the morgue scene has a little porblem. Grain is
present in many of the dark scenes.
AUDIO: English 5.1, French 5.1 Dolby Digital
Subtitles: English SDH, Spanish, French
Dialogue is clear, but it is a little quiet compared to the sudden loud bursts of music and noise. THE CONSTANT GARDENER
is a mostly a dialogue driven picture.
SPECIAL FEATURES: Four deleted scenes (10 1/2 minutes in total) border upon bad or good depending on the scene you watch.
Maybe only the second scene I miss. The extended scene is a 9 1/2 minute version of the AIDS play in Kiberia shown in the
film.
Three featurettes round out the extras.
EMBRACING AFRICA: FILMING IN KENYA (9 1/2 minutes) shows the work that went into filming there and why they had to film
in Kenya using real locations.
JOHN LE CARRE: FROM PAGE TO SCREEN (10 minutes) recounts the story how the book was turned into a film (Hollywood didn't
want to set it in Africa) and how the author thinks it is one of the best book translations to screen (even though most of
the scenes from the book don't survive in the movie).
ANATOMY OF A GOBAL THRILLER: BEHIND THE SCENES OF THE CONSTANT GARDENER is a promo featurette with cast and crew and featuring
plenty of behind-the-scenes footage. All three featurettes have interviews and behind-the-scenes material.
FINAL ANALYSIS: Despite a slow beginning veering on the edge of boredom, THE CONSTANT GARDENER is one of the finest thrillers
of 2005.
this article is (c)1-14-2006 David Blackwell and cannot be reprinted without permission (except for excerpts and a link
to the review). Look for additional content at http://www.livejournal.com/users/enterlinemedia and send all comments to lord_pragmagtic@hotmail.com
