The Constant Gardener (2005) It would appear that the continent of Africa has been saturated with film crews these past couple of years! After 'Shooting Dogs', 'Hotel Rwanda', 'Blood Diamond', 'The Last King of Scotland' (to name but a few), 'The Constant Gardener' is another offering with an African setting. I should firstly say that I thought the film was visually stunning (courtesy of Fernando Meirelles) and tries to introduce some sort of social comment about drug company profiteering in conjunction with the love story...but... What really spoiled the film for me was quite simply, Ralph Fiennes! He sure rubs me up the wrong way with his posh twat persona. I struggled to watch him for over 2 hours, and I have to admit, my favourite scene was the one where he gets the living shit kicked out of him. Though I thought Rachel Weisz's performance was worthy of the Oscar nomination it received, I felt there was a definite lack of chemistry between her and Fiennes' character. At times I felt the film bordered on excessive sentimentality; you could feel your emotions (guilt?) being manipulated with all those cute shots of African children. It was yet another film about Africa, where Africans are relegated to bit parts. In my opinion, film is art. Painting by numbers is not art. And this I feel was ultimately an exercise in filmmaking by numbers. Corporal Tench
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