Layman Five Star Movie Review: The Constant Gardener

This movie was so good I'm going to forego my usual hilarious jokes, and cannily satirical factual errors and carely calculated typographical mistakes, just to impress on you how goddamn much I enjoyed this movie. My roommate, who has the attention span of a mayfly on a Nutrasweet bender, proclaimed it boring after about ten seconds, so I was left to watch it on my own,

What a great movie. A really smart, subtle, beautiful and achingly sad movie, with great characterization, and a smart story structure that was neither deliberately obtuse nor did it beat you over the head with the points it was trying to make. I knew going in the basic premise, that a husband (Ralph Fiennes) wife (Rachel Wiess) was killed and he is trying to figure out what happened, but I knew very little else. Probably for good reason, since it's about Pharmacutical companies testing bad drugs on dirt poor, unspecting Africans. (Which also explain why it didn't do well in the box office, 'cause if there is one thing Americans are willing to turn a blind eye too --other than their asshole president-- is what goes on in Africa.)

Rachel Weiss was phenomenal, as an viviacious and idealistic crusuader. I didn't pay much attention to the Oscars this year, but I see she won for Best Supporting Actress, and it is totally well-deservered (personally, I think the line between Best and Supporting continues to get fuzzier and more stratigic every year, and I would have given her Best Actress.) Ralph Fienne, in retrospect, had a much less flashy role, but did no less a job, as a stuff beuracrat (I know that is spelled wrong-- screw you!) who keeps his emotions very close to the vest. Which, it turns out, makes the ending that much more devastating.

Anyway, great, great movie. I wanted to bawl like a baby at the end, or like Rufus at feeding time, but of course I am too much of a man to show any emotions other than anger, rage, or fury.



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