“The Constant Gardener” (2005)
“The Constant Gardener” was another movie I really wanted to like. Nothing like a good conspiracy flick. Especialy these days with the way Big Business and Our Government are acting more like one combined entity. The good news is that the actual content – the story itself – is well done and believable. The acting is good. The writing is good. But …
The actual cinematography is all over the place. Flash-backs, flash-forwards, documentary-style footage, weird lighting, lots of British-style mumbling. Maybe this style works well for a European audience, or maybe I’m too used to Hollywood-style movies, but I found it just too distracting.
The situations the main characters got themselves into were sometimes kind of weird. Either they were too passive (typically British) or they should have been killed 10 times over and for some idiotic reason weren’t. The finale is idiotic too – to an American viewer, at least. I won’t give it away save to say: “Use the damn gun!”
The footage of Africa and the living conditions were pretty startling. I had no idea there was such crowding and that the conditions were that bad. Still, the locals seemed way too happy for the setting. And their reaction of amazement at a couple of murders seemed out of place for the poverty level. Maybe that’s just an American’s expectation of Poor=Crime. Who knows. It got kind of preachy in there and there was a little of the Great White Savior complex going on as well – which I guess one would expect from a British-made film.
All in all it wasn’t bad, but could have been a lot better with a different director and a little more logic in the screenplay.
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