''The Constant Gardener'' is a 2005
drama
Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance: a play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode has b ...
thriller film directed by
Fernando Meirelles. The screenplay by
Jeffrey Caine is based on
John le Carré
David John Moore Cornwell (19 October 193112 December 2020), better known by his pen name John le Carré ( ), was a British and Irish author, best known for his espionage novels, many of which were successfully adapted for film or television. ...
's 2001
novel of the same name. The story follows Justin Quayle (
Ralph Fiennes
Ralph Nathaniel Twisleton-Wykeham-Fiennes ( ; born 22 December 1962) is an English actor, film producer, and director. A Shakespeare interpreter, he excelled onstage at the Royal National Theatre before having further success at the Royal Shak ...
), a British diplomat in Kenya, as he tries to solve the murder of his wife Tessa (
Rachel Weisz
Rachel Hannah Weisz (; born 7 March 1970 ) is an English actress. She is the recipient of various accolades, including an Academy Award, a Laurence Olivier Award, and a BAFTA Award.
Weisz began acting in British stage and television in the ...
), an
Amnesty
Amnesty (from the Ancient Greek ἀμνηστία, ''amnestia'', "forgetfulness, passing over") is defined as "A pardon extended by the government to a group or class of people, usually for a political offense; the act of a sovereign power offici ...
activist, alternating with many
flashbacks telling the story of their love.
The film was filmed on location in
Loiyangalani and the slums of
Kibera, a section of
Nairobi
Nairobi ( ) is the capital and largest city of Kenya. The name is derived from the Maasai phrase ''Enkare Nairobi'', which translates to "place of cool waters", a reference to the Nairobi River which flows through the city. The city proper h ...
,
Kenya
)
, national_anthem = " Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"()
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, image_map2 =
, capital = Nairobi
, coordinates =
, largest_city = Nairobi
...
. Circumstances in the area affected the cast and crew to the extent that they set up the
Constant Gardener Trust in order to provide basic education for these villages. The plot was vaguely based on a
real-life case in Kano, Nigeria. The DVD versions were released in the United States on 1 January 2006 and in the
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...
on 13 March 2006. Justin's gentle but diligent attention to his plants is a recurring background theme, from which image the film's title is derived.
Hubert Koundé,
Danny Huston
Daniel Sallis Huston (born May 14, 1962) is an Italian-born American actor and film director. A member of the Huston family of filmmakers, he is the son of director John Huston and the half-brother of actress Anjelica Huston.
He is known for ...
,
Bill Nighy
William Francis Nighy (; born 12 December 1949) is an English actor. Nighy started his career with the Everyman Theatre, Liverpool and made his London debut with the Royal National Theatre starting with '' The Illuminatus!'' in 1977. There he ...
,
Pete Postlethwaite
Peter William Postlethwaite, (7 February 1946 – 2 January 2011) was an English character actor.
After minor television appearances, including in '' The Professionals'', his first major success arose through the British autobiographical fil ...
, and
Donald Sumpter co-star. The film was a critical and box office success and earned four
Oscar
Oscar, OSCAR, or The Oscar may refer to:
People
* Oscar (given name), an Irish- and English-language name also used in other languages; the article includes the names Oskar, Oskari, Oszkár, Óscar, and other forms.
* Oscar (Irish mythology) ...
nominations, winning
Best Supporting Actress for Rachel Weisz.
Plot
Justin Quayle, a British diplomat and avid horticulturalist, is confronted by
Amnesty International activist Tessa during a lecture in London. They strike up a romance, and marry after she accompanies him to his posting in
Kenya
)
, national_anthem = " Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"()
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, image_map2 =
, capital = Nairobi
, coordinates =
, largest_city = Nairobi
...
, where she befriends Kenyan doctor Arnold Bluhm, leading to rumors of an affair. Tessa has no qualms confronting corruption, to the chagrin of Justin's superiors, and they lose a child late in her pregnancy.
Connecting local deaths to trials of a new drug, Dypraxa, conducted by Kenyan-based company Three Bees, Tessa and Arnold write a damaging report on the drug. She gives it to Justin's colleague Sandy Woodrow, the British
High Commissioner, who sends it to Sir Bernard Pellegrin, head of the Africa Desk at the
Foreign Office. Pellegrin responds with an incriminating letter to Sandy, which Tessa persuades him to show her, and she steals it before departing for
Loki with Arnold.
Sandy informs Justin that a white woman and black driver have been killed near
Lake Turkana, and that Tessa and Arnold shared a room at
Lodwar
Lodwar is the largest town in north-western Kenya, located west of Lake Turkana on the A1 road. Its main industries are basket weaving and tourism. The Loima Hills lie to its west. Lodwar is the capital of Turkana County. The town has a popula ...
before hiring a car. Justin and Sandy identify Tessa's mutilated body, but Arnold's whereabouts remain unknown. Police confiscate Tessa's computer and files, but Justin finds her keepsake box, containing a letter from Sandy declaring his love for her and asking her to return Pellegrin's letter, and records of Three Bees' tests.
After Tessa's burial, Justin learns from his colleague Ghita that Tessa kept Arnold's secret that he was gay, as
homosexuality is illegal in Kenya. Pursuing the truth about his wife's murder, Justin follows the trail of her report. He is briefly detained by police and confronts Three Bees' CEO Kenny Curtis, but receives no answers.
Returning to London, Justin's passport is confiscated. He dines with Pellegrin, who lies that Arnold must have murdered Tessa, and believes that Justin has his incriminating letter. Justin meets with Tessa's cousin and lawyer Ham, and they access her computer files to reveal her investigation into Dypraxa and its manufacturer, pharmaceutical conglomerate KDH, who hired Three Bees to test the drug on unsuspecting Kenyans.
Justin receives a threatening note, and Ham provides him with a fake passport to travel to Germany, where he meets Tessa's contact Birgit, part of a pharmaceutical watchdog group. The group has been targeted and she is reluctant to speak, and Justin is attacked in his hotel room and warned to stop investigating. Arnold's body is found tortured to death, while the announcement of a safe Dypraxa causes KDH's stock price to soar.
Returning to Kenya, Justin confronts Sandy, who admits that Tessa's report was silenced to save KDH from spending millions redeveloping the drug. Justin is approached by Curtis, who has been betrayed by KDH, and brought to a mass grave of Dypraxa test subjects. Curtis points Justin to Dr Lorbeer, Dypraxa's inventor, who has fled to Sudan. Tim Donohue, a friend in British intelligence, confirms that Pellegrin had Tessa and Arnold killed. Unable to convince Justin to return home, he gives him a gun.
Justin travels to confront Lorbeer, who is treating remote villagers to atone for the lives claimed by his drug. The village is attacked by raiders, but Justin and Lorbeer escape in a
U.N.
The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmonizi ...
aid plane, and Lorbeer reveals that he has Pellegrin's letter; Tessa convinced him to record the truth about Dypraxa, but he changed his mind, informing KDH that Tessa and Arnold were en route to expose the company to the U.N.
Justin convinces the pilot to mail Pellegrin's letter to Ham, and to drop him off at Lake Tarkana. Removing the bullets from his gun, his final thoughts are of Tess before he is killed by KDH's henchmen. In London at Tessa and Justin's memorial service, Pellegrin lies that Justin committed suicide in the same place his wife died. Ham announces the reading of an
epistle, but instead reads Pellegrin's letter, exposing the deaths caused by Dypraxa and the subsequent coverup. Pellegrin storms out as Ham implicates the British government, KDH, and public complacency regarding the human cost of medicine they take for granted.
Cast
Inspiration and themes
The plot of the film is loosely based on a
real-life case in Kano, Nigeria involving antibacterial testing by Pfizer on small children.
The film's title derives from Justin's gentle but diligent attention to his plants, a recurring background theme that informs his patience and persistence.
Production
The film was shot partly in
16mm
16 mm film is a historically popular and economical gauge of film. 16 mm refers to the width of the film (about inch); other common film gauges include 8 and 35 mm. It is generally used for non-theatrical (e.g., industrial, ed ...
on location in
Loiyangalani and the slums of
Kibera, a section of
Nairobi
Nairobi ( ) is the capital and largest city of Kenya. The name is derived from the Maasai phrase ''Enkare Nairobi'', which translates to "place of cool waters", a reference to the Nairobi River which flows through the city. The city proper h ...
,
Kenya
)
, national_anthem = " Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"()
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, image_map2 =
, capital = Nairobi
, coordinates =
, largest_city = Nairobi
...
. Circumstances in the area so affected the cast and crew that the Constant Gardener Trust was established in 2004 in order to thank the community for their help during filming.
Kate Winslet was considered for the female lead before Weisz was cast.
Reception
Box office
The film's worldwide gross was $82,466,670.
Critical response
On the film aggregator website
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
, ''The Constant Gardener'' has a "Certified Fresh" score of , based on critical reviews, with an average rating of . The consensus reads, "''The Constant Gardener'' is a smart, gripping, and suspenseful thriller with rich performances from the leads." It also has a score of 82 out of 100 on
Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...
, based on 39 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".
Roger Ebert of the ''
Chicago Sun-Times
The ''Chicago Sun-Times'' is a daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Since 2022, it is the flagship paper of Chicago Public Media, and has the second largest circulation among Chicago newspapers, after the ''Chicago ...
'' called it "one of the year's best films." ''
USA Today
''USA Today'' (stylized in all uppercase) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth on September 15, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headquarters in Tysons, Virgi ...
'' noted that the film's "passion, betrayal, gorgeous cinematography, social commentary, stellar performances and clever wit puts it in a special category near perfection". However,
Michael Atkinson of ''
The Village Voice
''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture paper, known for being the country's first alternative newspaper, alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf (publisher), Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Mailer, th ...
'' criticized the film as "a cannonballing mélange of hack-cuts, impressionistic close-ups, and tropical swelter."
Accolades
Author's dedication and afterword
John le Carré, in the first edition of the 2001 novel on which the film is based, provided both a dedication and a personal afterword. The dedication and part of the afterword (amended) are reproduced in the closing credits of the film. The first states: "This film is dedicated to
Yvette Pierpaoli
Yvette Pierpaoli (18 March 1938 – 18 April 1999) was a French humanitarian who lived in Cambodia and worked in many countries around the world. John le Carré dedicated his novel '' The Constant Gardener'' to her.
Early life
Pierpaoli was b ...
and all other aid workers who lived and died giving a damn." The latter continues (in the next credit): "Nobody in this story, and no outfit or corporation, thank God, is based upon an actual person or outfit in the real world. But I can tell you this. As my journey through the pharmaceutical jungle progressed, I came to realize that, by comparison with the reality, my story was as tame as a holiday postcard." The text appears over John le Carré's name.
See also
* ''
Abdullahi v. Pfizer, Inc.''
* ''
Medicine Man
A medicine man or medicine woman is a traditional healer and spiritual leader who serves a community of Indigenous people of the Americas. Individual cultures have their own names, in their respective languages, for spiritual healers and cerem ...
''
References
External links
*
*
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Contant Gardener, The
2005 films
2000s thriller drama films
2000s mystery thriller films
2000s mystery drama films
BAFTA winners (films)
British mystery thriller films
British nonlinear narrative films
British thriller drama films
English-language German films
Films about murder
Films about widowhood
Films directed by Fernando Meirelles
Films featuring a Best Supporting Actress Academy Award-winning performance
Films featuring a Best Supporting Actress Golden Globe-winning performance
Films set in Kenya
Films set in London
Films set in Sudan
Films shot in Kenya
Focus Features films
2005 independent films
Films based on works by John le Carré
Films scored by Alberto Iglesias
Medical-themed films
Films with screenplays by Jeffrey Caine
2005 drama films
Films set in Nairobi
Films shot in 16 mm film
2000s English-language films
2000s British films