There's a theory, among the vast spectrum of conjectures and hypotheses, claiming there are a limited amount of stories in the world and that each emerging art form is merely the retelling of one of these finite accounts.
Besides a breathtakingly alluring African backdrop and an attack on U.S. pharmaceuticals, \The Constant Gardener"" fails to provide engaging dialogue, intriguing action sequences or non-clich?? characters-those facets that forgive a film for its repetitive plot.
""The Constant Gardener"" follows the classic pattern of boy meets girl, boy loves girl, girl hides something from boy, girl is murdered, boy avenges girl's death and learns girl's secret. The film opens with the serious and rather stoic Justin Quayle (Ralph Fiennes) bidding a brief but heartfelt farewell to his beautiful, impassioned wife Tessa (Rachel Weisz).
In the following scene, which represents a passing of several days, a friend informs Justin that Tessa has been found murdered in an overturned car. The film immediately jumps to a classroom session where lecturer Justin first meets and is charmed by fiery student Tessa. The two promptly jump into bed, after which director Fernando Meirelles returns to the present where Justin is forced to identify the scorched and battered body of Tessa. Meirelles deserves credit for this sequence; the celebration of the vitality of the human body during an act of love placed next to the grotesque state of death was remarkably touching.
The film then makes its final chronological jump to when U.S. diplomat Justin agrees to take Tessa to Africa as his wife. Where Justin's political role in Africa remains ambiguous, ""The Constant Gardener"" focuses on Tessa's inclination to stop the suffering in the dilapidated area in which they reside (exactly how is unclear, though). It soon becomes apparent, in the scenes leading up to and after Tessa's death, that Tessa has uncovered a conspiracy concerning the testing of the U.S. pharmaceuticals on the African citizens, and that her murder was executed to silence her.
Justin essentially picks up where Tessa left off, and discovers (like so many protagonists have) that the powerful aren't always the virtuous and his friends may be on the side of the bureaucracy rather than his own.
Unlike many thrillers, ""The Constant Gardener"" is not guilty of insulting the viewer's intelligence. The details of the mystery are revealed at an unostentatious pace, which unfortunately could also be regarded as a dull pace. The movie is two hours and twenty minutes long, and viewers will feel every single one of them. If you divert your attention for even a moment, you risk total confusion. There's no question that the business with the pharmaceuticals is intelligent, but whether or not it's engrossing enough to sacrifice $8 is questionable.
Technically speaking, ""The Constant Gardener"" was filmed with obvious care to make each shot artistically appealing. The blend of warm colors, which Meirelles managed to incorporate into almost every scene, was both alluring and rather emotional.
Although a photographic masterpiece, ""The Constant Gardener"" lacked the means to be considered a cinematic masterpiece. That's not to say that Meirelles' visual portrayal of passion can be easily forgotten.
