Wow. What a great movie. I think this is the first film I’ve reviewed for 5 stars on the blog in the year and a half that I’ve been writing on it.
The Constant Gardener is a powerful drama that blends character-driven story and political thriller in equal parts while using a bit of non-traditional narrative devices and brilliant cinematography to great effect.
On all levels, this movie just delivers. Ralph Fiennes (who is one of my favorit actors) and Rachel Weisz deliver stellar performances, as do many of the supporting cast (you may even recognize the evil vampire king from Underworld, now playing the evil politician king. Same role really…).
This movie is really powerful. If I had to sum up the movie in one word that would be it. Powerful. It tackles powerful issues in a powerful way: head on. You can’t escape the feeling of being right there, the feeling of loss and mortal peril that suffuse the film and make it an exercise in high tension from the first ten minutes.
And, unlike the last movie I just reiewed, the ending of this one is stellar. It ends as it began. Powerfully. With an emotional bang so loud that they didn’t even need to add sound from the gunfire.
I walked away from this movie feeling almost the same as after seeing Schindler’s List. Emotionally drained and beat up. I wanted to become an activist and shut my eyes and forget the whole thing at the same time. Any movie that provokes that much response has done a good job of not just exposing the raw nerves, but tickling them long enough and skillfully enough that you don’t just shut down and tune out or get desensitized.
Great movie. It should win Best Picture and should get nominated at least for Best Actor and Best Supporting Actress.
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