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September 23, 2005
The Constant Gardner
The Constant Gardner (2005), Fernando Meirelles:
So I admit, it's a pretty dumb title. Whatever happened to the "The [cool sounding name] [random noun]" convention for international thrillers?
So then the buzz started coming out. I mean, as soon as I saw the people involved, I got excited. John Le Carre meant this was the genuine article, adapted by perhaps the most exciting international director to come to prominence in the last five years. Also, I still enjoy watching Ralph Fiennes on screen, even though he's only really played two characters well (Quiz Show and Schindler's List, though we've got Spider from "the 'flix").
Yeah, so buzz, hype whatever. It's such a sexy premise: multinational pharmaceuticals, developing nations, British spies, but ultimately it just doesn't get the job done. It does well indicting of MNCs' practices in foreign nations and very well on the connection between Fiennes and Weisz, but the 'thriller' part is stock and everything as a whole seems just patched together.
Of course, I enjoy the resurgence of the international spy thriller starting with Bourne series. Between this and the well-meaning Interpreter, I think American cinema's rediscovered countries beyond our own and found that the politics today can be just as fertile as the Cold War's were.
9/15
Posted by bing at September 23, 2005 10:43 AM
Comments
You forgot to mention the montages. Oh, the montages!
Posted by: alissa at September 23, 2005 02:27 PM