Based on the best-selling John le Carré novel. In a remote area of Northern Kenya, activist Tessa Quayle is found brutally murdered. Tessa's companion, Justin, appears to have fled the scene, and the evidence points to a crime of passion. Using his privileged access to diplomatic secrets, he will risk his own life, stopping at nothing to uncover and expose the truth - a conspiracy more far-reaching and deadly than Justin Quayle could ever have imagined.
Directed
by Fernando Meirelles Novelby John Le Carré Screenplay by Jeffrey Caine
Cast
(in alphabetical order)
Ralph Fiennes .... Justin Quayle
Daniele Harford .... Miriam
Danny Huston .... Sandy
John Keogh .... Immigration Offical
Hubert Koundé .... Arnold Bluhm
Richard McCabe .... Ham
Gerard McSorley .... Sir Kenneth Curtiss
Sidede Onyulo
Archie Panjabi
Eva Plackner .... Crossing Guard
Pete Postlethwaite .... Marcus Lorbeer
Anneke Kim Sarnau .... Birgit
Donald Sumpter
Rachel Weisz .... Tessa
Produced
by
Jeff Abberley .... executive producer
Julia Blackman .... executive producer
Simon Channing-Williams .... producer
Gail Egan .... executive producer
Robert Jones .... executive producer
Henning Molfenter .... co-producer
Donald Ranvaud .... executive producer
Tracey Seaward .... co-producer
Original
Music by Alberto Iglesias Cinematography by César Charlone Film Editing by Claire Simpson
MPAA:
Rated R for language, some violent
images and sexual content/nudity.
For rating reasons, go to FILMRATINGS.COM,
and MPAA.ORG.
Parents, please refer to PARENTALGUIDE.ORG
Based
on the best-selling John le Carré novel and from the Academy
Award-nominated director of "City of God." In a remote area
of Northern Kenya, activist Tessa Quayle (Rachel Weisz) is found brutally
murdered. Tessa's companion, a doctor, appears to have fled the scene,
and the evidence points to a crime of passion. Members of the British
High Commission in Nairobi assume that Tessa's widower, their mild-mannered
and unambitious colleague Justin Quayle (Ralph Fiennes), will leave
the matter to them. They could not be more wrong. Haunted by remorse
and jarred by rumors of his late wife's infidelities, Quayle surprises
everyone by embarking on a personal odyssey that will take him across
three continents. Using his privileged access to diplomatic secrets,
he will risk his own life, stopping at nothing to uncover and expose
the truth - a conspiracy more far-reaching and deadly than Quayle
could ever have imagined.
A film can become a powerful tool of communication when its director presents a message with clarity and without compromise. In The Constant Gardener, director Fernando Meirelles does just that, presenting a film which refuses to compromise in its story telling. This is not a film which backs down from a fight, even if its protagonist, Justin Quayle (Ralph Fiennes) seems to be the type of person who would do just that.
Quayle is a mid-level diplomat whose life is forever changed when he meets a stubborn woman named Tessa (Rachel Weisz). Before either of them truly knows one another, they have eloped and moved to Africa together on a diplomatic assignment. Tessa quickly makes Kenya her home and begins serving the people alongside of a local doctor, Arnold Bluhm (Hubert Kounde). When Bluhm begins to discuss with Tessa some of the shady dealings of an international pharmaceutical company, the tension of the film really ratchets.
In terms of decoding what is at first glance a rather unusual title, one of the most poignant scenes in this film is a brief homemade video during which Tessa films her sleeping husband Justin—a British diplomat stationed in Kenya—while joking about how he is probably dreaming of a “world without weeds.” No doubt, she isn’t far from the truth, seeing as Justin devotes most of his spare time to caring for his immaculate garden. But can his dream ever become reality? And is his love of horticulture—and his need to eradicate weeds—a healthy way of coping with life? Or does it represent something else, a retreat from life perhaps, a denial of the weed-infested reality that is all around him? Tessa’s tone definitely implies the latter.
And Tessa should know. In contrast to Justin’s reticence, she has taken it upon herself to root some of the weeds of injustice that Justin and his cohorts at Britain’s High Commission in Kenya have chosen to ignore—a fact that irritates the High Commission to no end. When Tessa catches wind of a plot by a multinational drug company to use Kenyans as Guinea pigs for a new tuberculosis drug in exchange for free medication, she and a Kenyan doctor named Arnold attempt to blow the whistle. Not long afterwards, Tessa and Arnold are found murdered in a remote region of northern Kenya. Stunned by his wife’s death, Justin is finally drawn out of the safety of his garden and into the jungle of the real world as he attempts to discover who killed Tessa and why and what the true nature of her relationship with Arnold really was.
—Continue on the blog
I
will not post these comments. I
welcome your spiritual concerns and prayer needs. I will correspond
with you, usually within two weeks.
Email David Bruce
