Finally! The Constant Gardener hits local cinemas almost half a year after it opened in the United States. Even Malaysia released it 3 months ago. What is the cause of delay? Is it the guileless exposé of postcolonial high-level corruption or the blatant stab at modern capitalism that entail a closer scrutiny from the axe-wielding censors? Whatever it is, I am glad the movie finally makes its way to our shores. Perhaps we have the Awards to thank, for bestowing a Golden Globe on Rachel Weisz even before her nomination for the Oscar was announced. The movie itself is up for 4 Oscars and receives a whopping 10 BAFTA nods!The Constant Gardener is no chintzy prate. Very clearly, this is a message-ridden masterpiece. To Brazilian director Fernando Meirelles, whose own country is nonetheless an underprivileged cousin of one of today’s political superpowers, The Constant Gardener probably echoes his own views on the cruel exploitation of third world countries, in this instance, Kenya in Africa. Bringing on board Jeffrey Caine for screenplay, Mereilles picks up the John Le Carré book and gives it a voice in the medium he knows best – poignant, albeit fragmented but very effective, documentary-style story-telling with stunning cinematography and some truly outstanding acting.
I was first attracted to The Constant Gardener for 2 reasons – Ralph Fiennes and the magnificent African landscape. Then came the story. John Le Carré writes deeply intellectual fact-founded fiction that lacks the mass appeal that is necessary for the message within to propagate. For this purpose, The Constant Gardener, the movie, is the vehicle. It is a timely release, too, in an age when pharmaceutical companies come under fire for introducing inadequately-tested drugs, the most notable of which is the Vioxx saga in 2004.
The Constant Gardener delves deeply into the essence of humanity, pulsating with righteous preach lines in the voice of impassioned activist Tessa Quayle (Rachel Weisz) for the people of the Kenyan slums. It is also a story of unconditional love and mutual respect that comes with the genteel character of Ralph Fiennes’, Justin Quayle, an English diplomat who works his hands at his quaint garden so he can keep them off the life of his lovely wife. Sad to say though, his hands-off policy gives Tessa the diplomatic passport to places that would eventually bring her damnation. Justin’s hands-on approach in the aftermath of her death, in turn, triggers a plethora of intriguing discoveries that send him racing across Europe and Africa, turning over unsolicited rocks and gardening for the ugly truth.
Perhaps it’s the essence of an archetypal political thriller, or perhaps it parallels the elusiveness of real world high-level conspiracies, Meirelles’ fragmented narrative style seems to be the best way to tell this twisted tale of government malfeasance and the moral quagmire that arises when corporate greed supersedes the value of humanity. The story telling comes in diverse layers, alternating between the past and the present in a series of flashbacks which explain why things happen and to pick up where a crucial narrative gets interrupted. This, coupled with hand-held, fast and frantic shots plus razor-sharp editing, create a sense of beleaguered logic as we watch the events unfold through the eyes of confused Justin Quayle. Justin is such a heart-wrenching sight to watch, simultaneously crumbling under his grief and upholding the very noble and very dangerous secret causes of his murdered wife that the director slowly lets on.
The film begins mysteriously with the ecstatic chatters of a woman as the opening credits roll. As the images kick in, we see an exchange of longing goodbyes by a loving couple, the Quayles. She says, “Bye bye, sweetheart” … He hesitantly replies, “See you … in a couple of days”. And then Justin receives news that Tessa has fallen victim to a fatal bandit attack.
In a stark comparison with Meirelles’ earlier internationally-acclaimed work, City of God, this film is violence without the blood and gore. At the morgue, Justin’s superior, Sandy Woodrow (Danny Huston), the Head of the British High Commission, leans over the sink, puking at the sight of the mutilated body of Tessa Quayle. The eyes that remain fixed on the nauseating remains of Tessa are Justin’s alone.
Is this lack of visibility of the apparent violence an insinuation of what is happening in the world today, as will be appropriated in the film as the story progresses? Is this the ‘bloodless’ violence of profit-taking and blood-sucking corruption in the very places where the ailing public pins its hopes on? Is this the ‘goreless’ violence in which the lives of the poor and the destitute don’t count, where cover-ups of their gory deaths as guinea pigs are rampant and immaterial in the thick of material pursuits?
There are answers that Justin seeks, especially when Arnold Bluhm (Hubert Kounde), a local doctor with whom Tessa works closely, goes missing. This is where Justin gets a little side-tracked. How can he not, when he had accidentally retrieved an email message addressed to Tessa that read, “What were you and Arnold doing in the Nairobi Hilton Friday night? Does Justin know?” Even before he solves this mystery, another letter that points to Tessa’s infidelity turns up. It is a note from Sandy Woodrow, who, among words of affection, mentions a report and an incriminating letter that must be returned immediately.
Justin starts digging. Dypraxa, the ‘wonder’ drug for tuberculosis (TB) developed by Canadian pharmaceutical giant KDH and distributed locally by Three Bees, which also provides free AIDS drugs and TB testing to the Kenyan slums. It sounds like a genuine philanthropic effort and corporate citizenship on the part of the drug companies, or are they using these programmes to mask the testing of other drugs? Lab tests would have cost millions and considerable delays with opportunity costs that run into billions of dollars. Human trial and error cost much less, and furthermore, these lives are worthless anyway.
Justin’s transformation from a quiet diplomat who is detached from issues to one who pursues the truth with astounding fervour does not escape the eyes of his superiors. He suddenly finds his diplomatic passport confiscated. Woodrow tries to convince him that Tessa’s death is nothing more than an unfortunate robbery gone awry. Sir Bernard Pellegrin (Bill Nighy) who heads the Foreign Office back in London, wants him to return to Kenya, resume his diplomatic post and stop the senseless questioning of his wife’s accidental death.
Justin’s incessant probing turns up more truths about the wife that he never really knew. Tessa did not have an affair with Arnold because he was gay. However, she had never really loved him. She had ‘cold-bloodedly led him on’ for her own mission. She had used herself to get into Africa and into places where she would otherwise be shut out of had she not been the spouse of a diplomat, just as she had no qualms about offering herself to the lustful Woodrow in exchange of the top secret letter.
Tessa is a beguiling, unforgettable character; her presence is ubiquitous despite having only appeared in the first half of the movie. While I am trying to decide if I should admire her valiant pursuit of human rights for the African people or detest her conniving ways of achieving these motives, it is clear that Justin’s love for her is unwavering. The scene where he breaks down at Tessa’s house is heart-breaking. When he sternly forbids concrete from being poured into her grave because “it is Tessa’s wish to be buried in African soil”, I thought, for someone who never really loved this man here, Tessa is one hell of a lucky woman.
Needless to say, Justin stops at nothing until he gets to the bottom of Tessa’s murder. Not when he is brutally beaten up in his hotel room in Germany, not when he is fleeing the marauding horsemen of a Sudanese tribe, not when every face around him seems to have a hidden agenda, every car seems to be hot on his trail, every friend could turn around and be the foe. When he finally puts all the evidence in a package that he entrusts to the UN aid pilot to mail to Tessa’s cousin, the one person he trusts to bring to light one of the darkest conspiracies involving the British and Kenyan governments and well-respected corporations, Justin has Tessa on his mind. He asks the pilot to fly him to Lake Tenaka, where Tessa had been headed. In a gripping final scene, Justin speaks constantly to Tessa in the land of nothingness, as though to the end of time.
Somewhere, far away in London, the truth comes to light.
And I dig it. Really, really dig it.
