THE CONSTANT GARDENER (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED)

With their disjointed storylines and subtly complex characters John Le Carre’s novels are notoriously difficult to translate to the big screen. You’d have to look as far back as 1965’s The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, with Richard Burton, to find a truly successful adaptation of his work.

Surprisingly, Fernando Meirelles (City Of God) delivers a timely and trenchant film that does justice to Le Carre's best-selling novel, The Constant Gardener. Collaborating with screenwriter Jeffrey Caine, the Brazilian filmmaker patiently unfolds a challenging and thoughtful thriller that is as gripping as it is romantic.

Using non-linear story telling and superbly crafted flashbacks, Meirelles charts the emotional and global journey of Justin Quayle (Ralph Fiennes), a modest and unambitious British diplomat stationed in Kenya who tends to both his garden and passionately idealistic wife, Tessa (Rachel Weisz), with equal tenderness. When Tessa is found brutally murdered, his peaceful equilibrium dissolves into remorse and then fiery determination.

Haunted by rumors of marital infidelity and suspicious of his colleagues’ involvement, Justin vows to learn the truth about his wife’s death and track down her killer. What he uncovers is a conspiracy that involves a multinational pharmaceutical company and his own government. More devastating is the realization that the crimes perpetrated by both are as commonplace as they are insidious.

Meirelles masterfully interweaves the personal with the political until they become inseparable. On one hand, the film wraps us up in layers of international intrigue and suspense. On the other, it presents a deeply moving portrait of personal loss. As Justine unravels the string of corporate crimes that put his life in danger, his relationship with Tessa is rediscovered and redefined. The love story and the political thriller become interlocked, inciting and inspiring one another to create a story that is as affecting as it is memorable.

It’s no small feat that screenwriter Caine manages to keep things moving along without prematurely giving away too much of the plot away or sacrificing Justine’s personal growth. It’s an impressive balancing act made moreso given the movie’s sociopolitical indictments.

Ralph Fiennes gives a terrific performance as he portrays Justine’s evolution from callow passivity to impassioned activism. It’s a subtle and stunningly believable transformation of character. Weisz is compellingly ferocious in her role as the idealistic and indignant Tessa. The chemistry between these people of opposite temperaments is both convincing and palpable.

Shot mostly in the rural areas of Northern Kenya, director Meirelle shows us a part of the world we seldom see in movies. Using real locations, natural light and an impressionistic style of filmmaking, he captures a third world landscape that is truly authetic: more than just another exotic backdrop for a Hollywood story. In a way, Kenya emerges as the film’s third main character.

It may very well be Meirelles' Brazilian background that lends itself best to The Constant Gardener’s third world plot and setting, offering a perspective that is less British and more attuned to the indigenous surroundings. There is a visceral punch to the director’s guerilla filmmaking style that captures the urgency of Le Carre’s storytelling with the spontaneous complexities of his characters and politics.

Provocative and thoughtful, The Constant Gardener confronts the economic and humanitarian crimes of capitalism more seriously than most American films. It is an unsettling examination of the pharmaceutical industry’s dark underbelly and the West’s apathy toward a continent where human beings are considered little more than lab rats. It is that rare movie that attempts to combine thrilling suspense with emotional resonance and social relevance and delivers on all three counts.