'Constant Gardener' offers compelx political thriller
As you'd expect from John le Carre, "The Constant Gardener" (Focus), an adaptation of his 2000 novel, is a complex political thriller. But, like the book, it's also a searing indictment of those who would use Third World nations to test unapproved drugs on a helpless public.
African-based diplomat Justin Quayle (Ralph Fiennes) of the British High Commission is harangued by activist Tessa (Rachel Weisz) at a speaking engagement in London. She alienates the other attendees, but when the room empties and she dissolves into tears of embarrassment and frustration, Quayle feels sorry for her and asks her out for a drink.
The impromptu date leads to romance, and before long she's inviting herself to join him when he returns to his station in Africa.
There, after they are married, she is murdered on a remote road, along with a doctor colleague. (The story is told in nonlinear fashion with flashbacks and fast-forwards.)
Quayle sets out to uncover the mystery behind her murder, and is told by his friend and fellow diplomat Sandy (Danny Huston) that she may have been having an affair with a black doctor named Arnold Bluhm (Hubert Kounde) with whom she was traveling.
A mild-mannered man, given to watering his numerous plants, Quayle is energized by the shocking death to probe the circumstances, uncovering a web of intrigue involving conspiracies, government corruption and betrayal at the highest levels of power.
Director Fernando Meirelles' ("City of God") adaptation of le Carre's novel (screenplay by Jeffrey Caine) is a longish-feeling 130 minutes, and though the plot is twisty -- and occasionally confusing, with lots of fast cutting as the narrative shuttles back and forth in time -- it holds your interest.
Fiennes is at his very best, showing how his easygoing complacency morphs into an impassioned activism much like that of his wife. Weisz is appropriately obnoxious in her strident activism, but likable too. Besides their excellent work, there are also solid acting turns by Huston, Gerard McSorley, Richard McCabe, Bill Nighy and Pete Postlethwaite.
Much of the movie was shot on location in Kenya, London and Berlin.
All in all, this is a quality film with an important social justice message. A postscript from le Carre at the end reads: "Nobody in this story, and no outfit or corporation, thank God, is based upon an actual person or outfit in the real world. But I can tell you this; as my journey through the pharmaceutical jungle progressed, I came to realize that, by comparison with the reality, my story was as tame as a holiday postcard."
This film contains brief rear and partial nudity, scattered profanity, rough language and crude expressions, a restrained premarital bedroom scene, quick blurry shots of violence including lynching, and a gruesome description of death. The USCCB Office for Film & Broadcasting classification is A-III -- adults. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is R -- restricted.
The 40-Year-Old Virgin
We've seen it before. The buddies of a painfully shy, awkward guy -- who has never had a girlfriend -- help him find true love.
But this latest incarnation, "The 40-Year-Old Virgin" (Universal), is relentlessly vulgar and frequently offensive, even beyond the false premise that there's something intrinsically wrong with an unmarried man being sexually inexperienced.
Andy (played by the likable and understatedly funny Steve Carell) is an electronics store clerk whose rowdy, sexist co-workers, David (Paul Rudd), Jay (Romany Malco) and Cal (Seth Rogen) set out to help him, finally, lose his virginity.
Their methods involve taking him out carousing to meet women at bars, loading him with pornography and sexual aids, sending him speed-dating and setting him up with a prostitute (a transvestite as it happens). A terrifying car ride in which a drunken woman (Leslie Mann) he picked up in a bar attempts to seduce him before barfing all over him is emblematic of the film's lowdown humor. A body-waxing sequence during which the hirsute Andy has some patches of hair ripped off him is more wince-inducing than funny, and the pain unleashes even more expletives.
One day, Trish (Catherine Keener) -- who sells items on eBay in a ramshackle shop across the street -- comes into the store, and the attraction is apparent. It turns out she's a single mother with three children and a grandchild, and once he works up the nerve to ask her for a date the relationship turns into something real.
Trish doesn't understand his reticence about sleeping with her, and Andy is mortified at the idea of telling her. Complications ensue.
Director and co-writer Judd Apatow's film has many good ingredients, including an adept cast. In addition to those mentioned, there are good turns by Elizabeth Banks, Jane Lynch and Kat Dennings. But all of them, especially Carell himself, deserve way better.
The comic setup is classic, but the screenplay, co-written by Carell -- who only has himself to blame -- is mostly trashy. The nonstop f-words and raunchy sexual talk and situations make for an embarrassingly tasteless two hours.
Ironically, once the Andy-Trish old-fashioned romance hits its stride, the tone of the film improves, but even though the ending is morally satisfying it's too little too late.
With something close to the basic plot, the same cast and a tasteful script, this could have been a real charmer, but they've shot themselves in the foot by going for the lowest common denominator.
The romantic comedy "Hitch" managed to break box-office records with a modicum of bad language and sexual situations. "The 40-Year-Old Virgin" is unlikely to appeal to many beyond the goofy teens who seem to be its intended audience.
The film contains profanity, rough and crude language, racial epithets, rear and partial nudity, heavy sexual content including strongly permissive view of premarital sex, condom use, characters displaying demeaning view of women, crass gay and bathroom humor, drug use and drinking. The USCCB Office for Film & Broadcasting classification is O -- morally offensive. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is R -- restricted. Harry Forbes is director of the Office for Film & Broadcasting of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
|