The Constant Gardener (2005) (WS)

An Enjoyable Film...

By Yahoo! Shopping User  Apr 12, 2006

Pros: documentary-style cinematography, good performances by lead characters, moving scenes of African life, great score

Cons: over-zealous plot, average writing

This was an intriguing film with good acting and cinematography, and a great score, however, its downfall is that it tries to accomplish too much in such a short time. Rachel Weisz's performance was by far the best in the movie, and it was enough... to earn her an Oscar (Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role, 2006). The amazing Ralph Fiennes was did not shine as brightly this time, but I believe it was the writing that failed him, pushing him into a Keanu Reeves-like role: totally unaware of what's going on, but surging ahead as though he did. Ultimately the plot was just too "busy" as the writer(s) tried to incorporate too much of the novel (of the same title, by John le Carre) as possible. Unfortunately this did not succeed and the product was instead a rushed, confusing series of scenes in which major events were mentioned in passing and even the main character doesn't seem to know what he's doing. While the goal of most movies with a societal theme is to get watchers to think critically about what they just saw, with such an over-zealous plot, I was left thinking "what did I just see?" This film tries very hard to be an espionage-mystery, political statement, and love story all rolled into one. I think that a more focused approach would have improved the actors' performances, the plot wouldn't have been stretched as thinly, and this combined with the great score and cinematography would have given the movie more weight and had a greater impact on the viewer. Overall an enjoyable film, but not the thought-provoking commentary I expected. Read more Less