|
The Constant Gardener
by Gaetana Caldwell-Smith / October 2005 issue of Socialist
Action newspaper
A
FILM REVIEW OF: “The Constant
Gardener,” a U.S./U.K. independent film directed by Fernando Mierelles;
screenplay, Jeffrey Caine. Starring Ralph Fiennes, Rachel Weiz, and Danny
Houston
Fernando
Mierelles, who directed “City of God,” has a new film, “The Constant
Gardener,” based on John Le Carre’s 2001 mystery novel of the same name.
Like the book, the film takes place against the background of neo-colonial
Africa, and focuses on the connivance of
the
the Kenyan government with the British Foreign Office in covering up
clinical trials of an unproven TB drug, DyPraxa.
The
trials are perpetrated on an unsuspecting, impoverished African populace in
Nairobi, by the capitalist multinational pharmaceutical giant, ThreeBees.
Side effects of the drug sometimes include a slow and painful death through
organ failure.
This
suspenseful, intelligent, eye-opening, multi-layered film requires close
attention. It is
over
two hours long, yet is mostly rapid-fire, elicited by the use of hand-held
cameras and jerky visual and audio quick-cuts.
As
in a documentary, Mierelles captures Kenya’s color and flavor
(cinematographer, Cesar Charlone) and its music (Alberto Igesias), and
illustrates the social contrasts between Kenyans and Britons. On one side
of the road are spacious green lawns and stately homes;
on
the other, slapped-together houses with corrugated iron roofs, crowded
together on dusty, red earth, with barely enough room to pass between.
“The
Constant Gardener” begins at a law school lecture hall in London, with
confirmed bachelor and British diplomat Justin Quayle (a perfectly cast
bland, kind-eyed, and weak-chinned Ralph Fiennes), substituting for the
scheduled lecturer.
Screenwriter
Jeffrey Caine updated the novel by having a student, Tessa (played with
fiery determination by Rachel Weiz), question Quayle about Britain’s role
in Bush’s Iraq war. Quayle is taken by her, and they eventually marry and
go off to Kenya, where Justin has
been
posted by the British High Commission. The film then fast-forwards to
Tessa’s murder.
Following
Le Carre’s novel, screenwriter Caine uses the conceit of investigation to
flash back to Justin and Tessa’s lives before her murder.
Quayle,
Sandy Woodrow—also of the FO (played by an outstanding Danny Houston)—and
others who had known her are interrogated regarding her murder. From this
point on, the film becomes both a murder mystery and a spy intrigue vehicle
in the breaking down of the
mechanism
behind ThreeBees operations.
ThreeBees
is banking on a future pandemic of drug-resistant TB, calling it “The White
Plague.” It lobbies the U.S. and European governments for billions in
funding —as well as from the UN, WHO, and other alphabet organizations—to
bribe African officials into agreeing to the trials, knowing full well that
the drug can kill, and of course, to line their own pockets.
In
a busy marketplace, Black women in white smocks bearing the ThreeBees logo
on the pocket distribute drugs: one drug costs little, the other is free.
Kids are rewarded with a plastic toy. People sign forms with IC (Informed
Consent) printed on them, without an
explanation,
effectively giving the company, if the drug doesn’t work, the license to
kill.
The
slow, mysterious death of a young Black woman in an African hospital is the
catalyst that further motivates and radicalizes Tessa. She and Dr. Arnold
Bluhm, a Black man from Belgium (Hubert Kounde), begin building the case
against ThreeBees (whose cartoonish
logo
of three happy, busy bees, appears everywhere), networking with other
activists in Germany and Sweden for information.
At
first, Quayle stays clear of Tessa’s activities; preferring to be left
alone to pursue his FO duties, working with Woodrow to spin and smooth
sticky issues between the British and Kenyan heads of state and pursuing
his hobby of gardening in his spare time. He lets her embarrass herself at
posh, diplomatic parties where she confronts VIPs about their shameful
activities.
But at one point, he is asked by his superiors to “rein her in.”
Tessa
compromises herself with Woodrow, thinking he can help her put a stop to
ThreeBees operations. Her idealism blinds her to the fact that government
bureaucrats like him, who are in a position to do something, rarely act.
Quayle
refuses to listen to the gossip about Tessa and Dr. Bluhm. Yet, once his
wife is murdered and he begins to investigate her activities and to slowly
gain a better understanding of what motivated her, he is fired up not only
to validate his wife’s work but to finger the people behind ThreeBees, find
out who ordered Tessa killed, and damn the consequences. As Le Carre put
it, “her mission had become his.”
As
the Foreign Office, British Intelligence, and Kenyan officials become aware
of Quayle’s efforts, the suspense builds into spy vs. spy mode as Quayle
travels to London, Germany, and back to Kenya barely one step ahead of his
enemies.
|
