Film Review: The Constant Gardener (dir. F. Meirelles, 2005)

OK, not so crazy about this one. For one thing, I never bought that the Fiennes character and the Rachel Weisz character worked as a couple. She was a young, speak-her-mind student, he was a cautious, introverted diplomat when they met--and they end up in bed after that first meeting. Really? But even if that happened, would they end up getting married--because she asked him to marry her? Maybe I don't understand women, but these events seem inexplicable to me.

And don't even ask me about the plot. The drug companies are testing drugs on Africans. OK. And I know that drug campanies really do this. But what, exactly, the drug companies are up to, why the drugs are deadly, what the profit motive is, here . . . less clear than most health care topics are to me, which is not very clear. (It's possible that what was going on would be clear to someone smarter than me--but, in my experience, few films are actually made for people smarter than me.)

And even if the Weisz character was doing all this investigation . . . her husband would be completely in the dark about it, until she was killed?

OK, enough complaining. The movie is beautiful, and it deals with issues of importance, even if it deals with them in a confusing and less-than-illuminating fashion. The acting is quite good. But that story . . . what happened, again?