The Constant Gardener

The plight of the impoverished is hardly the stuff of blockbusters. Being reminded that millions die each year through civil war, hunger and disease is a little too real for a medium addicted to escapism. The Constant Gardener probably won’t break any financial records but murmurs of Oscar nominations have already begun which can only broaden the appeal of this eloquent if didactic film.

Like the novel upon which it is based, The Constant Gardener begins with a murder. The victim is a young British woman, the wife of Kenyan-based British diplomat Justin Quayle (Ralph Fiennes). From the point of her death the narrative is told in two time frames; Quayle’s present as he searches for the truth about his wife’s murder, and the past – how they reached this point.

Quayle is the gardener of the title. A diffident, unambitious sort of man he is not the type to be described as passionate, yet that does not mean he is without passion. While Justin is unerringly polite, Tessa Quayle (Rachel Weisz) has little time for niceties. An activist, zealous about fighting the injustice meted out to underclasses and the poor, Tessa is forthright and tenacious. Her love for the impoverished in the shantytown of Kibera sees her visiting the sick and poor, lobbying local officials and British authorities for better provisions and risking all for justice. Everything else, including her relationship with Justin, comes second. In her sights is a multinational pharmaceutical company that she suspects may be exploiting the poor for their research.

Quayle’s colleagues and the police dismiss Tessa’s death as a crime of passion, the work of a rejected lover. Her unfaithfulness is easily credible in their calculations. It’s a convenient solution to an inconvenient death but Justin Quayle is not convinced. Defying his characteristic reserve he makes it his mission to determine what happened to his beloved wife.

Ostensibly a search for Tessa’s killer this adaptation of John le Carré’s novel is as much about the West’s betrayal of Africa as it is a murder mystery.
Brazilian filmmaker Fernando Meirelles is familiar with poverty. Nominated for an Oscar for his depiction of life in a Rio slum (City of God), even his acquaintance with deprivation and corruption was not enough to prepare him for what he found in Kenya.

His shock at the intense poverty and widespread disease was shared by cast and crew. Producer Simon Channing Williams was so moved by his experience that he established a charity to assist the poor of Kibera and similar towns.

The death of Tessa Quayle in some way echoes the deaths of those she was trying to help. The film depicts it in terms of betrayal. She was let down by those she thought would help her, just as Africa has been betrayed by the well-meaning nations of the West. Quayle is told “There are no murders in Africa, only regrettable deaths.” It’s a chilling admission of the downgrading of human life.  We may truly believe – as we ought – that all people are created equal, yet in practice inequality is rife. But what to do and where to start?

Part love story, part political drama, The Constant Gardener is a tragic tale, yet there are whispers of hope. Its message is strong: we have a responsibility to do what is right. And its message is specific; expose corruption, feed the hungry, help the sick.

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