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34
10,000 B.C. Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
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4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
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Constant Gardener, The
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MPAA RATING: R for language, some violent images and sexual content/nudity
Starring Ralph Fiennes, Rachel Weisz, Danny Huston, Bill Nighy, Pete Postlethwaite, and Archie Panjabi
Adapted from the novel by John le Carre, this is a gripping romantic thriller that sweeps audiences along one man's emotional and global journey to uncover the truth behind a personal loss and a worldwide conspiracy. (Focus Features)
| GENRE(S): | Drama | Suspense/Thriller |
| WRITTEN BY: |
Jeffrey Caine
John Le Carré |
| DIRECTED BY: | Fernando Meirelles |
| RELEASE DATE: |
DVD: January 10, 2006 Video: January 10, 2006 Theatrical: August 31, 2005 |
| RUNNING TIME: | 129 minutes, Color |
| ORIGIN: | USA / UK |
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
The average user rating for this movie is 6.8 (out of 10) based on 203 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Dan S. gave it a9:
John Le Carre was by far my favorite narrator of how the Cold War corroded the humanity of everyone involved. The screen adaptations of his novels of those times, starting with the brilliant "Spy Who Came In From The Cold", showed clearly how most involved lost their idealism along the way...if they ever had any. They also explored so well about why and how decent people betray friendships and even love. "The Constant Gardener" tells us how far a huge pharmaceutical company will go to make more profits and, in any case, to cover up unethical, illegal practises when they go wrong. It has similar themes to Le Carre's earlier tales. The film was especially well-acted, with Fiennes and Weisz at their finest, while the cinematography and intelligent dialogue added a lot. Yet, I'm not surprised that the viewers gave this an average score of only 6.7, lower than the 82 by the critics. The basic premise of the tale is that the large pharmas will go so far as to murder those who are attempting reveal the cover-up. "Big pharma" these days have few fans outside Bush's White House, but it's really hard to imagine that they are up to assassinating those they fear. That's really seems to go too far. Yet, I can't bring myself to give this one a score of less than 9. Maybe it's because of Rachel Weisz, my nominee for the thinking man's heart throb. Maybe, like Le Carre, I'm just a sentimental old lefty. So I just can't help myself: "Honi soit qui mal y pense" (Evil to him who evil thinks.)
Riren gave it a3:
International pharmaceutical companies have been exploiting poor Africans in need of medicine for decades in order to test their drugs, regardless of their potentially crippling or lethal side effects. If the preceding sentence interested you, read a book about it. Don't see this movie. It's neither informative, nor an actually good film. The first half hour is a nearly incomprehensible exercise in flashbacks and flash forwards, setting up a disconnected chronology to excuse all the later scenes in the film from having to occur along a realistic timeline. It works with the naivety of an action movie, but reaches insultingly for the depths of a conspiracy movie, and comes away with the satisfaction of neither. It decomposes into sentimental trash by the end, with its great cast’s highly sympathetic acting jobs being thoroughly abused by sloppy editing and very poor direction. The use of manic cinematography decreases your attention span, doing no service to the plot’s slow burn – and despite it being slow, relationships between nearly all of the characters are left horribly confusing. After you realize you spent the first forty minutes of this movie just to get back to the beginning of the plot, and still have another hour and a half to go, you'll realize the half-baked melodramatic romance (which sees the main characters go from fighting at a lecture to bouncing in bed within five minutes of screen time) and bitter pseudo-realism wasn't worth the price of the ticket or DVD. Worst of all, this movie about the abuse of Africa's sick is about pretty people - the drama is foreigners running from terror, or children in peril, or the excess of the rich, with little more than ten seconds of screen time for any character who is actually stricken with T.B. or HIV. The lack of screen time for the actual suffering in the subject matter is the worst fault of a film that is pretty much exploiting that atrocity to give guilty-feeling non-Africans some catharsis. In the end, you can blame all the evils of the world on corporations and bureaucracy, but you can't blame them for this being a bad movie.
Judith H. gave it an8:
A good, rather than a great film, but I'm surprised few people have mentioned the novel. There were some strange decisions made in the adaptation, such as NOT including Lara, the beautiful Russian scientist. And now I've typed that I can see why not - it sounds too James Bond.
Mike R. gave it a0:
This was the SLOWEST MOST BORING movie I have ever seen. If you didn't see the movie I'll save you two hours. Drug companies are bad. There that's it, that's all the movie had to say. Terrible movie.
David H. gave it a5:
Le Carre's most disappointing book turned into a disappointing film. Odd collection of villains, some nice scenery, and a couple of pretty actors brooding.
Loildo T. gave it a9:
Great Movie, unquestionably! But, of course, this kind of movie requires maturity and patience, as for most interesting things.
R M. gave it a10:
Best Movie I've seen since the Lord of the Rings Trilogy, though two completely different genres. This ranks in my top 10 list of films of all time. Ralph Fiennes and Rachel Weisz, they don't accept your typical Hollywood crap scripts to work with. 10/10 for Constant Gardener. I watched the movie twice and will be looking at it a third time. After seeing it the first night, my wife wanted to know why I wanted to hug her for the entire evening (she hadn't seen it yet).
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