FilmDailies.com - A filmmaker’s blog

I haven’t read John Le Carré’s The Constant Gardener but I did see City of God (Cidade de Deus) by the Brazilian director Fernando Meirelles. Both of them are highly-rated so I did expect a very good movie. Meirelles’ style is consistent with his previous movie where we got the in-your-face realism of slums and their dwellers.

The story (chronologically told) is about a “couple’ that goes to Africa. The husband is Justin Quayle (Ralph Fiennes), a British diplomat in Kenya. His young wife, Tessa (Rachel Weisz), goes from helping the poor in the slums to tracking medicines all the way to big pharma and their testing of experimental drugs in third world countries.

When Tessa is killed, Justin takes up her mission in a rude awakening for his comfortable life of a career diplomat. Tessa does reappear once or twice in dream sequences but I wanted to see Rachel Weisz a bit more. She brought energy to the movie that Ralph’s soft-spoken couldn’t match in the third act.

Overall, it’s a good and intelligent thriller. It did fail to get a response on an emotional level: Tessa & Justin’s relationship was too stale; the big pharma victims remained nameless and faceless. The movie has a very strong political message. I’m almost surprised that Jeff Skoll’s Participant Productions didn’t produce this one as well (Syriana, North Country, etc.).

Whoever was in charge of Ralph’s wardrobe should’ve done some screen tests before committing to the sweaty tshirt for the second half of the movie.

They probably wanted to get as far away as possible from Ralph’s portrayal of Lazslo de Almasy (The English Patient) because it would encourage people to compare the two movies. There’s no way The Constant Gardner will come on top in a comparison like that.

Update: Rachel Weisz won an Oscar for her portrayal of Tessa.

This is Niki Caro’s first movie since Whale Rider. Based on a recent interview in Guardian, she got offered a LOT of projects on the back of her success with Whale Rider. She adds: “Admittedly many of them involved large mammals and small girls.”

Makes you think twice about making a breakthrough genre flick. You’ll be haunted with clones of your one hit for the rest of your life. She goes on:

No, really, they did. And I actually considered one very seriously, I should also say. So I was thrilled when this one [North Country] came along. It was a script that really shocked me, because it’s real and it’s recent. This case wasn’t settled until 1998.

Whale Rider puts North Country in perspective. I had a problem with its slow pace and redundant reaction shot sequences. My photography professor, however, used to say: “underexpose or overexpose, it doesn’t matter as long as it’s consistent. You call this style.” I guess this is Niki Caro’s style and I’ll have to live with it.

The story (inspired by a true one) takes place in a mine town in Minnesota. Essencially, it’s the struggle of a single mother, Josey Aimes (Charlize Theron), who fights a corporate behemoth (a mine).

In the opening scene, we see Josey being hit. We find out later that this was her husband and that this isn’t the first time he’s laid a hand on her. Even at this point, we know who’s the victim and who’s the villain in this movie. The Palestinian assassins in Munich had more human sides than most of the men in North Country.

Josey gets her two kids goes back to her parents. Her father has been working in a mine all his life, her mother is a housekeeper. She ends up working in mine as well (she can make six times more as a miner). She’s subjected to constant verbal abuse and so are her female colleagues.

Finally, when she’s assualted physically by a “fellow” miner (and high-school friend too), she decides she’s had enough. She quits and decides to sue company for ignoring the issue for too long.

The performances are very good (Charlize Theron and Frances McDormand already got an Oscar nod). Most of the family scenes ring true. The court scenes, however, are very weak and since they provide transitions and generally hold the film together, the whole movie suffers. The ending itself (which I won’t reveal) suffers from the same flaws, so I felt a bit disappointed.

Note: Similarly to Whale Hunter, this movie has a strong political message. It was produced by Jeff Skoll’s Participant Productions. Jeff Skoll is eBay’s ex-president who took it upon himself to fund movies that tackle important issues: Syriana, Good Night, and Good Luck, and Murderball.

It’s impossible NOT to go see this movie. It’s not that it’s a great movie (although it’s pretty good if you’re in the right mood for romance). It’s simply the movie that everyone’s talking about. Including the Academy. At the time of this writing, it has eight nominations, a.k.a. “nods”.

The vast majority of critics have been raving about the movie for quite some time now. It tackles an easier (if not worthier) and more accessible subject than Syriana or Munich, for example. Some critics attribute the movie’s success on the fact that it’s in a niche of its own. As if “gay cowboy” is actually a niche.

You probably know the story by now but it doesn’t hurt to provide you with a synopsis, coming straight from Ang Lee’s production notes.

Early one morning in Signal, Wyoming, Ennis Del Mar (Heath Ledger) and Jack Twist (Jake Gyllenhaal) meet while lining up for employment with local rancher Joe Aguirre (Randy Quaid). The world which Ennis and Jack have been born into is at once changing rapidly and yet scarcely evolving. Both young men seem certain of their set places in the heartland - obtaining steady work, marrying, and raising a family - and yet hunger for something beyond what they can articulate. When Aguirre dispatches them to work as sheepherders up on the majestic Brokeback Mountain, they gravitate towards camaraderie and then a deeper intimacy…

The movie essentially repackages the “forbidden love” theme, putting it in a very specific time and place (Wyoming, 1963-). The theme is heated up pretty quickly (we get skin by end of Act I) and then we’re treated to 90 minutes of leftovers.

The leftovers in this case are the romantic getaways of the two in the next 20 years. Their families are rarely more than a backdrop, as is the titular mountain. In the climatic scene, Jake utters: “I can’t make it on a coupla high-altitude fucks once or twice a year!”

Why do they expect the audience to make it? I certainly can’t. I’d preferred a bit more drama but I guess Annie Proulx’s story doesn’t have all that.

In short, if I’d like to see a good tragic love movie, I’d still turn to The English Patient. I’m re-reading Michael Ondaatje’s book on Walter Murch (The Conversations : Walter Murch and the Art of Editing Film) so I find a level of depth with The English Patient that I didn’t find in Brokeback. Also, I do find it easier to see Kristin Scott Thomas as a potential love interest.

Update: Heath Ledger was found dead in his NY apartment on January 22, 2008. Rest in peace.