 Movie Review:
The Constant Gardener
Production Company: Focus Features
Director: Fernando Meirelles
Principals: Ralph Fiennes, Rachel Weisz, Danny Huston
Rating: R (language, nudity and violence)
By Gregg Tubbs
(UMCom) – They say, “All’s fair in love and war.” After watching the new thriller The Constant Gardener, one might add, “and in business as well.” Based on the John Le Carré international thriller of the same name, The Constant Gardener thrusts us into a world of deception and corruption, where cash is king and the sick and impoverished are sacrificed on the altar of profits and privilege.
Le Carré, usually known for spy novels, guides us through the dark tunnels of an entirely different kind of espionage – the deadly, high-stakes game of mega-medicine. This is a callous world where epidemic outbreaks are greeted as “market upturns” and clandestine human testing is the most cost-effective way to rush a drug into the marketplace. Casualties are seen as “acceptable losses” in light of future lives saved … and potential profits made.
Tessa (Rachel Weisz) and Justin (Ralph Fiennes) Quayle. Copyright © 2005 Focus Features |
Award-winning Brazilian director Fernando Meirelles (City of God) brings a bristling edginess to the film set mostly in Kenya, where mid-level English diplomat Justin Quayle (Ralph Fiennes) has just settled with his lovely and politically active wife, Tessa (Rachel Weisz). Gardener, at times, bears an uncanny resemblance to Hotel Rwanda from 2004. Both films show us African nations in crisis and the callous or opportunistic actions of Europeans in response. In Rwanda the crisis is genocidal racial strife, but in Gardener we see Kenya as a kind of “ground zero” for AIDS, which has reached epidemic proportions.
When a prominent European drug company partners with a Canadian testing lab to offer free AIDS testing and treatment in the Kenyan slums, it is first greeted as an act of charity. Before long, Tessa senses conspiracy. “They are drug companies. They do nothing for free,” she says. So she and a Kenyan doctor begin to dig deeper into the pharmaceutical firm’s unexplained generosity. They discover that, for unexplained reasons, those being tested and treated for AIDS are also being tested for tuberculosis. When they also find out that AIDS treatment is withheld from those who refuse to submit to TB testing, their investigation leads them into dangerous territory.
Dannny Huston portrays Sandy Woodrow. Copyright © 2005 Focus Features |
As with many Le Carré stories, no one here is quite what they seem. Tessa is more of a political radical than first suspected, willing to risk her life to save others from the corruption of those with power and money. We are even left wondering if her marriage to Justin was a calculated move to get her to Kenya and closer to suspected medical crimes. When she mysteriously turns up dead, Justin also proves to be much more than he seemed. The mild-mannered bureaucrat, whose only passions were for his wife and gardening, turns into a tenacious truth-seeker, traveling the globe from London to the Sudan to uncover the secrets for which Tessa had risked her life.
Though fast-paced, The Constant Gardener captivates through intrigue and drama, not violence and special effects. Justin, ever the gentle gardener, is more intent on understanding his wife’s death than seeking violent revenge, and his growing sense of moral outrage over what she discovered is the dramatic payoff of the film. That outrage is well-founded. Tessa had uncovered a plan by the pharmaceutical and testing companies to turn their free AIDS patients into unwitting human guinea pigs, combining a highly experimental TP drug with their AIDS medications. A landfill littered with bodies of those killed by the unstable drug shows their attitude toward their Third World test subjects. They are disposable – like garbage.
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| Ralph Fiennes (left) and Pete Postlethwaite (right). Copyright © 2005 Focus Features |
The callous inhumanity of the pharmaceutical executives is compounded by their entrenched racism. It’s not just that unwilling lives are sacrificed to speed their drug to market, but that they have made the conscious choice to sacrifice black African lives to save paying white customers. This is indeed playing god – but a cruel and discriminating one who values some lives over others, rich over poor and the easy wrong over the more demanding right.
The Constant Gardener is a work of fiction, but its premise is anything but far-fetched. One has only to remember the infamous Tuskegee syphilis study conducted in Macon County, Ala., from 1932 to 1972, denying treatment to hundreds of African-American men so the end-stages of the disease could be thoroughly studied. The Constant Gardener reminds us that, as Christians, we should never lose our sense of outrage or become complacent about such criminal choices.
Gregg Tubbs is a freelance writer living in Columbia, Md.
This review was developed by UMC.org, the official online ministry of The United Methodist Church.
Group Study Guide
Study Questions:
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What is your view of Tessa? Did she love Justin, or did she use him?
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Justin never used his gun. What does this tell us about him? Would you have used it? If so, when?
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How can you compare the Hippocratic Oath taken by physicians (“First, do no harm”) to what Jesus called the second most important commandment (Matthew 22:39 – “Love your neighbor as yourself”)?
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Do politicians, doctors and corporate executives in the film violate those rules?
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Tessa said, “A marriage of convenience can only produce dead offspring.” What did she mean? Was she correct, within the context of the film?
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Do you believe even good people can do evil things when tempted by greed?
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Do the racist elements of the experiment make it worse? Why or why not?
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What do you think that Jesus, who healed Gentiles and (in parables) praised Samaritans, would say about racism? Would he think that one race is inherently better or more worthy to live than another?
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Were you surprised by the film’s end, and what Justin did, or didn’t do?
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Why was the film called The Constant Gardener? What does this reveal about the nature of Justin?
Group Activities:
The Hardest Choice: This is an ethical/moral problem-solving activity, with no “correct” answer. The goal is to approach a morally difficult dilemma and explore solutions based on individual, religious and social guidelines. The scenario: A disease outbreak is about to occur and a cure exists. The dilemma: Enough medicine is available to save only half of your group. As a group, come to a solution you can agree on. As props, use candy or breath mints to represent pills. Make available only half as many as you have people in your group. How will you choose? Will you draw lots? Choose by age, sex, relative health? Will you barter, buy or make other deals to save specific lives? How will your faith guide you? Remember, there may be no correct solution, but the process should generate debate, discussion and discovery.
Explore Rationalizations : The drug company justifies its heartless behavior by saying, “We only chose people who were probably dying anyway.” Excusing sinful actions in a way that sounds “rational” like this is called a rationalization. As a group, discuss popular rationalizations, such as:
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“It’s a victimless crime.”
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“They’ll never miss it.”
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“It’s OK if you don’t get caught.”
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“She did it first.”
Discussion points:
- What would Jesus say about rationalizations?
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Why is it so easy to make excuses or rationalizations?
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Can most rationalizations be proven wrong?
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What does the Bible say about making excuses? (See Luke 16:15, I Kings 8:38-40)
Explore Africa: Before your next meeting, ask group members to bring news magazines and newspapers to your next meeting. Supply scissors and ask them to cut out articles about Africa. Assemble them and discuss the topics. Discuss what the number of articles might reveal. Are there a lot or just a few? What are they about? Do you see Christian groups at work solving crises in Africa? Is your church or group involved? Finally, discuss ways your group could help address suffering in parts of Africa, or anywhere there is need.
Resources
Official The Constant Gardener Web site
Theatrical Trailer
QuickTime
Windows Media
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