The Constant Gardener

Rated R

~ Constantly shaking~

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By Todd Karella
August 31, 2005

If you’re looking for an exciting thriller set in an exotic location, like the film is being promoted to audiences, then you are headed for a huge disappointment.
It comes across more like a documentary that takes much too long to develop. But with a documentary they usually don’t film it using the dreaded shaky cam.

It’s amazing how many films are being ruined using this horrid filming technique. There isn’t a lot of action in the film, but what there is it’s nearly impossible to tell what’s going on.
The film is about an English diplomat, Justin Quayle (Ralph Fiennes), living in Africa with his wife, Tessa (Rachel Weisz). Several days after seeing his

wife off on an expedition, a colleague comes to deliver some terrible news. On her return trip, Tessa was raped, murdered, her driver killed, and the African doctor traveling with her is missing and accused of the crimes.
   From this point on, the film goes back and forth in time so the audience can see what occurred as Justin slowly puts the pieces together to find out what really happened.
   Tessa was a political activist, and was in the process of uncovering something that would cost the British Government and a large pharmaceutical company a lot of money and embarrassment.
   While the film had an interesting idea, the pace was just too slow and the filming too jarring. The

ending was very anticlimactic, but at the same time refreshing as it didn’t end with the typical outrageous Hollywood action scene. Even so, it needed to have some kind of spark that it just never delivered. It was certainly not the thriller that was marketed.