THE CONSTANT GARDENER
UK, 2005, 129 minutes, Colour.
Ralph Fiennes, Rachel Weisz, Hubert Kounde, Danny Huston, Bill Nighy, Donald Sumpter, Archie Punjabi, Nick Reding, Gerard Mc Sorley, Richard Mc Cabe.
Directed by Fernando Meirelles.
Speaking of Justin Quayle’s character, one of the diplomats in the film notes speaks the words that are the title of this article, Justin was self-effacing, courteous and large of heart. The official synopsis of the film describes Justin as ‘…mild-mannered and unambitious colleague’. His garden is called a refuge, a private place, where his heart lay. The director, Fernando Mireilles (a Brazilian who directed the intense look at the gangs in the favellas in City of God) remarks, ‘At first glance, Justin appears very passive. He’s a civilised British gentleman, a polite diplomat who lives by a code.’
In an interview Ralph Fiennes calls Justin ‘a wonderful part, because he goes from being a reticent nice guy to being someone who is forced to confront pretty tough truths about the world’. He then adds, ‘I hope that the audience sees him as a kind of Everyman’.
One does not expect to find this kind of laid-back character prominent in a John Le Carre story. However, since the end of the Cold War and the fall of Communism, Le Carre has had to change the milieux of his novels. He has not changed the structures, the mystery, the conspiracy settings and the intrigue and double-dealings in shadowy worlds. It is just that he now concentrates on different shadowy worlds and on industrial misconduct and espionage. With The Constant Gardener it is the world of one of the most powerful and profitable industries in the world, that of pharmaceuticals. Not only does he dramatise the political and financial deals, he also takes his readers into the abusive world of illicit testing of drugs-in-development, especially on unsuspecting African townspeople and villagers.
This is a long way from the world of Justin, even though he is a diplomat of the British High Commission in Nairobi. He might never have been aware of this world had he not become infatuated with a bumptiously attractive campaigner, Tessa (a feisty Rachel Weisz), married her and brought her to Kenya where she is soon plunged into a cover-up conspiracy. She does not, however, let her shy husband know. It is only when she is murdered (at the beginning of the film) that he begins to open his eyes, move out into her world to solve her murder, gradually realising that he is falling more deeply in love with her after she is dead as he learns more about her.
Justin is a faceless bureaucrat who takes refuge in his passion for gardening, for cultivating and growing, for sense beauty. It is worth quoting Ralph Fiennes again on how he interprets his character. ‘Justin is a passionate – gardener. There’s an internal quietude about gardeners, this sensitivity to watching something live and grow, and caring about how something will flourish and bloom. To me, that was all key to Justin’.
Meanwhile, within, he lives his very subjective emotional life – the crisis will make him realise that he has not developed his rational side very well. In fact, he realises this when Tessa interrupts the speech he is giving on behalf of his absent head and he is at unexpectedly courteous pains to conciliate his adversarial interrogator. It does not take much seduction on her part for him to begin an affair which his proper English background quickly leads to marriage and a loving commitment.
The first challenges for him to begin this development are the suggestions made that his wife was having an affair with a fellow-doctor. He does and doesn’t believe it. But, his need to understand leads him to the truth about his love for his wife, to the truth of what she was involved in and her campaign against a government and company conspiracy, to the truth of his own integrity as a compassionate man. Rachel Weisz makes the comment on how she saw the relationship and its consequences, ‘Because of Justin’s love for Tessa, he goes on a journey of discovery where he reaches a new level of self-knowledge but he also discovers a huge political scandal’.
Justin is moving towards his opposite out-going qualities but Le Carre realises that, dramatically, and in real life, this kind of person will not change the world through up-front leadership but, rather, on a more personal and individual level. He may be defeated by the powers that be, but not morally defeated. The tragedy is, in The Constant Gardener, that Justin is not as powerful as his enemies and he allows them literally to efface him, self-effacing to the last. Except that he has cunningly used his ingenuity to arrange for the exposure of those who needed to be exposed.
It is a tribute to Ralph Fiennes’ skill as an actor that, without changing his appearance very much, he can quietly immerse himself in such different screen characters – think Amon Goetz in Schindler’s List, his television personality in Quiz Show, his romantic English Patient and, more recently, his voicing of the pantomime villain, Victor Quartermain, in Wallace and Gromit in The Case of the Were Rabbit. He has made the reticent Justin Quayle a fully rounded character.
1.The acclaim for the film? A British perspective? African settings? African perspective and universal perspectives? The contribution of the Brazilian director?
2.The work of John le Carre, his writing after his spy stories in the post-Cold War era? His focus on the pharmaceutical industries and their exploitation? The similarities between this kind of conspiracy and those during the Cold War?
3.The style of film-making, the range of techniques, the dazzling style, the variety of colours, bright in Africa, subdued for Europe? Different lenses, hand-held camera? Editing and pace? The mixture of drama, naturalism? Stylised and realism? The musical score?
4.The use of locations, the authentic feel of the film: London, Berlin, Africa?
5.The use of the city of Nairobi, the authentic sequences, the British High Commission, the streets and markets? The broader African locations, the landscapes (like moonscapes)? The villages, the lake?
6.The title, Justin and his hobby, seeing him with his plants, seeds and gardens? His character and his being withdrawn, absorbed in his work? His being blamed for being an abstract gardener and not being sufficiently aware of his wife and therefore responsible for her death?
7.The structure of the film: Tessa and her mission, the crash, deaths and the investigation? Justin and his memories of meeting Tessa, the talk, her questions, the relationship, her proposal, marriage and going to Africa. His identifying the body? Sandy and his reactions? His memories of Tessa, searching for her papers, discovering Sandy’s letter? The further interspersing of memories of Tessa as Justin continued her quest? Justin and Tessa together at the end? The linear aspects of the plot – and the non-linear treatment?
8.The romantic theme, Justin’s reticent relationship with Tessa, wary, withdrawn? Getting to know her after her death, her letters, her work, her protection of him, the video glimpses? His continued devotion to her, realising her love for him, falling in love with her after she died? Giving himself in death to her?
9.Ralph Fiennes’ characterisation of Justin, his background, family, public service? Quiet, withdrawn and unassuming type? Modest, loyal, courteous and large of heart? His plants, garden? His work in Kenya? Knowing the language, the people? His relationship with Sandy? His friendship with Ghita? His work in the United Kingdom, the stand-in for Pellegrin, the talk, pleasant, his taking Tessa’s attack, answers – the relationship, his reticence, her coming on strongly and his marrying her?
10.Justin and his change, growing in love for Tessa, absorbed in Tessa’s quest? The memories of her pregnancy, the baby? His understanding his own identity better as he understood her? The letters and Sandy? (The truth about this in the emails to Ham?), the funeral, wanting her to be buried in the earth and not in concrete? The young boy, the card, his learning about dypraxin? Following the further clues? The pharmaceutical companies? The golf course, the confrontation with Sir Kenneth Curtiss? With Tim Donohue? The staff in Nairobi, the spies, the standover men? The behaviour at the golf course? His going back to England, his passport being taken, meeting Sir Bernard, the lunch, Sir Bernard concerned about his letter and rousing Justin’s suspicions?
11.Ham, Ghita Meeting at the airport, the bonds between them because of Tessa? Going through all the emails? Seeing himself on the streaming video on the computer? The information about Tessa’s work?
12.His going to Germany, the subterfuge, the false passport? The meeting with the activists? The information about the school, meeting the woman, her giving further information and names? His being bashed in the hotel – and the warnings, that he would have the same fate as his wife?
13.His getting back into Africa via Paris and the tourist group? Calling Sandy out of the meal? Sandy and his confessions? Knowing the truth – especially about Tessa, her relationship with Arnold? Arnold and the work, his being homosexual and therefore being falsely accused of a relationship with Tessa? The truth about his being tortured and crucified?
14.Ghita, her help? The discussions amongst the staff, presided over by Sandy? His going to visit the village, the flight, the talk with the scientist, the little girl? His discovering the truth, the need to escape on the plane, running for the plane? The brutality of the raiders riding into the village, burning the huts, shooting people, abducting the children? Another perspective on the precariousness of life in Africa?
15.Justin and his asking to be let down by the lake, waiting for death – the gun, throwing it away (it being the gift of Donohue)? His being shot by the killers?
16.Sandy, his background, his work, the infatuation with Tessa, writing the letter? His relationship with Gloria? Seeing him at home, the meals? Presiding at discussions at the High Commission? His identifying Tessa’s body and being sick? The truth of his double dealings, the report, Sir Bernard? Wanting to hang on to his job?
17.Sir Bernard Pellegrin, his work, the job, his being in the photos with the pharmaceutical companies, the lunch, his letter, his orders for Tessa’s death? The double standards and his eulogy for Justin? The final letter and Ham reading it – and his hurrying from the church?
18.Ghita, her place in the High Commission, her help, the car?
19.The staff in Nairobi, the standover characters, the spies – and Justin being frightened as he drove and was pursued, the irony of his talk with Tim Donohue on the cliff, Donohue’s cancer, giving him the gun? His warnings?
20.Sir Kenneth Curtiss, his company, the millions of dollars to be made, his showing Justin the site for the buried bodies?
21.The pharmaceutical companies, the millions of dollars to be made if there were plagues and infections?
22.An intricate screenplay, heroics, pessimism? Causes and martyrs? Le Carre’s final comment at the end of the film in talking about the fictitious nature of his work – but it being real?
