The revelation that Big Pharma may be wanting in the ethics department is about as surprising as finding bear poo in the woods. Price gouging, developing world access, and clinical trials have all been the focus of repeated real-world outcries. "The Constant Gardener," based on the John le Carrè novel, shines much needed light under these rocks of the pharmaceutical industry, but sustains itself more on the depth of its characters, for whom we become truly concerned.
Director Fernando Mireilles brings here the same energy that surged through his "City of God." Mireilles is a master of injecting vibrance into scenes of human and urban decay; his crowds swarm with life, and colors shout out their presence. In that earlier film, our senses were heightened to expect violence at any moment. In "The Constant Gardener," though, nefarious goings-on are orchestrated through official channels of both industry and diplomacy, and Mireilles slows himself down enough to allow both his characters and story to unfold around us.
Foppish British diplomat Justin Quayle (Ralph Fiennes) is eking out a career as a functionary in Kenya. The mild-mannered Quayle is no professional superstar, but is liked by his peers and superiors, at least to the extent he's able to reign in his firebrand young wife Tessa (Rachel Weisz). Tessa to them seems swept away with the misguided idealism of youth. She brazenly interrogates industry allies at diplomatic functions, keeps company with a rabble-rousing African doctor/activist, and generally sticks her uppity bleeding heart where it is definitely not wanted. Her death early in the film, then, is not all that surprising. Pay attention to how Mireilles holds the camera on Quayle as he's given the news of Tessa's likely murder. A lesser actor might have turned on the histrionics, but Fiennes remains nearly impassive, betraying only the slightest facial tics that hint at a hidden emotional storm. When he finally does speak, it's to empathize with his colleague about the difficulty of delivering the bad news.
Details emerge that point to corporate malfeasance in Tessa's death. It seems she had submitted a report to British officials documenting a series of haphazard clinical trials of a potential flagship TB drug by an international pharma giant. Never having much previously concerned himself with Tessa's causes, Quayle starts asking questions. It is quickly made clear that powerful interests would like him to stop.
Fiennes is pitch-perfect here as a man who uses his milquetoast demeanor to his advantage. His adversaries first buddy up to him, assuming it will be no problem to convince such an unassuming type not to go biting powerful hands. Yet the more Quayle learns, the more it's clear not only that Tessa was onto something, but that many of his own suspicions about both her sincerity and marital fidelity were misguided. Quayle is no hostage-taking, marauding Charles Bronson-style avenging angel. He just keeps asking questions, in spite of the increasingly severe resistance. Weisz, too, seen mainly in flashback, gives us a three-dimensional character who lives for her crusades, but who truly loves her meek husband, perhaps more than he knows.
"The Constant Gardener" is convincing in its portrait of diplomatic life, in which functionaries speak blandly in broad platitudes, and no one loses sleep over inconsistencies and hypocrisies in the details. It's easy to ache for the poor masses who are the casualties of such callous officialdom, but hard to imagine the film's bleak ending turning out any other way. "The Constant Gardener," along with "Good Night and Good Luck," "Syriana," and "Munich," among others, is part of a recent chorus of progressive-minded political films. There can't be too many. Their combination of compelling characters and stories with courageous dissent makes for quality films and much needed activism.
Director Fernando Mireilles brings here the same energy that surged through his "City of God." Mireilles is a master of injecting vibrance into scenes of human and urban decay; his crowds swarm with life, and colors shout out their presence. In that earlier film, our senses were heightened to expect violence at any moment. In "The Constant Gardener," though, nefarious goings-on are orchestrated through official channels of both industry and diplomacy, and Mireilles slows himself down enough to allow both his characters and story to unfold around us.
Foppish British diplomat Justin Quayle (Ralph Fiennes) is eking out a career as a functionary in Kenya. The mild-mannered Quayle is no professional superstar, but is liked by his peers and superiors, at least to the extent he's able to reign in his firebrand young wife Tessa (Rachel Weisz). Tessa to them seems swept away with the misguided idealism of youth. She brazenly interrogates industry allies at diplomatic functions, keeps company with a rabble-rousing African doctor/activist, and generally sticks her uppity bleeding heart where it is definitely not wanted. Her death early in the film, then, is not all that surprising. Pay attention to how Mireilles holds the camera on Quayle as he's given the news of Tessa's likely murder. A lesser actor might have turned on the histrionics, but Fiennes remains nearly impassive, betraying only the slightest facial tics that hint at a hidden emotional storm. When he finally does speak, it's to empathize with his colleague about the difficulty of delivering the bad news.
Details emerge that point to corporate malfeasance in Tessa's death. It seems she had submitted a report to British officials documenting a series of haphazard clinical trials of a potential flagship TB drug by an international pharma giant. Never having much previously concerned himself with Tessa's causes, Quayle starts asking questions. It is quickly made clear that powerful interests would like him to stop.
Fiennes is pitch-perfect here as a man who uses his milquetoast demeanor to his advantage. His adversaries first buddy up to him, assuming it will be no problem to convince such an unassuming type not to go biting powerful hands. Yet the more Quayle learns, the more it's clear not only that Tessa was onto something, but that many of his own suspicions about both her sincerity and marital fidelity were misguided. Quayle is no hostage-taking, marauding Charles Bronson-style avenging angel. He just keeps asking questions, in spite of the increasingly severe resistance. Weisz, too, seen mainly in flashback, gives us a three-dimensional character who lives for her crusades, but who truly loves her meek husband, perhaps more than he knows.
"The Constant Gardener" is convincing in its portrait of diplomatic life, in which functionaries speak blandly in broad platitudes, and no one loses sleep over inconsistencies and hypocrisies in the details. It's easy to ache for the poor masses who are the casualties of such callous officialdom, but hard to imagine the film's bleak ending turning out any other way. "The Constant Gardener," along with "Good Night and Good Luck," "Syriana," and "Munich," among others, is part of a recent chorus of progressive-minded political films. There can't be too many. Their combination of compelling characters and stories with courageous dissent makes for quality films and much needed activism.