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January 28, 2006
The Constant Gardener
Part of the reason this was in my Netflix queue is that it turned up on many critic's Top Ten list. Or at least the critics I read. And I was intrigued that Rachel Weisz was up for a Golden Globe. I thought maybe I just have a short attention span today and that was the reason the movie seemed to drag to me. But after reading some reviews, I realize it was the movie, not me, that dragged.
Here's the problem with Highly Opinionated Political Thrillers - if you're a highly opinionated political activist, the movie probably wont ring true. Apparently, if you're a really well respected film critic, you spend so much time focused on movies, you don't know a tired argument when you see it.
I am really sick of Great White Hope for the problems of the oppressed. Rich white men and women are not going to solve all of the problems in the world. They can help - if they donate their money effectively - but they cannot lead the way. So, while I recognized a lot of myself in the Weisz character (expect I'm not a trust fund baby, minor detail), I couldn't get behind most of the story.
The problem with Big Pharma isn't really their drug trials; it's the basic reason for their existence. Treating healthcare as a commodity will lead to expendable people, because pure capitalism does not care about individual lives. The real problem is that society entrusts the pharmaceutical industry with its lives, and like any industry, pharma is only interested in the bottom line.
More importantly, the only reason the film was interesting was because of its non-linear sequence of plot points. Fine, I get that it is intriguing to unravel a mystery. But once it was unraveled, the film dragged on for another half an hour and the only thing I got for investing that time into the movie was the exact words of a mysterious letter. Woohoo.
The experts speak:
"'Gardener' settles for familiar ground," by Ty Burr in the Boston Globe
"Cold Comfort Pharm: Postcolonial detritus and pharmaceutical devilry dominate a mature le Carre adaptation," by Michael Atkinson in the Village Voice
Roger Ebert's review
Rotten Tomatoes Entry
Posted by cj at January 28, 2006 11:11 PM