THE CONSTANT GARDENER
(Fernando Meirelles / UK / 2005 / 129mins / 35mm / cert15)
(Fri 6th, Sat 7th, Mon 9th-Thurs 12th / 9pm / £2)

The Constant Gardener is a thriller-cum-love story told in retrospect, with all the twists and conspiracy you might expect from a John Le Carré novel
adaptation. Ralph Fiennes is Justin, a shy, introspective junior diplomat who falls in love with Tessa (Rachel Weisz), a beautiful and fiery political activist. They wed, and during a difficult posting to Kenya, Justin is informed that Tessa has been killed while on a fact-finding trip into remote territory with an aid worker. The film is a poetic and riveting enquiry into the nature of betrayal, both personal and political.

Director Meirelles captures the parched beauty of African desert nations, and personifies the horrors of their poverty in the same dusty, sunburned detail as he was able to do so successfully with his last film CITY OF GOD. The lead performances are superb, perhaps the very best of their careers, and there is excellent support, particularly from Bill Nighy as the Mephistophelean senior British diplomat. A first rate British film with all the right ingredients.