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The grieving Justin is determined to learn why his wife was killed

Unfortunately, as Justin hops all over the globe looking for answers, the story begins to feel increasingly compressed. Director Fernando Meirelles was nominated for an Oscar for his dazzling work on City of God, which told multiple stories set within a Brazilian slum, so he is no stranger to complexity; indeed, it is spellbinding to watch the fluidity with which he moves back and forth in time, to the point where Tessa becomes such a vivid presence that you almost forget she died in the film's opening scenes. But the screenplay, by Jeffrey Caine, must of necessity cut a sprawling plot down to a couple of hours; and Justin, along with the audience, barely has time to adjust to each new country he visits—England, Germany, Sudan, Kenya again—before the story compels him to hop another flight.

Meirelles and his cinematographer, César Charlone, were clearly impressed by the story's setting—both its landscape and its social milieu. And the images they create are often very striking indeed. But the film tries to cram too much information into its two hours, and it does such a good job of convincing us that things were amiss in the Quayles' marriage that, when it tries to cast a more positive light on Justin's memories, it doesn't quite work. Justin's love for his dead wife is moving, and haunting, but it rests more on the strengths of the actors—and Fiennes in particular—than on the material they were given to work with. Even if Tessa really did think the marriage was more than just a helpful way to further a political agenda, the filmmakers themselves seem to have settled for just that.

1. What sort of approach works best, when dealing with social or political problems? Tessa's hot-headed zeal? Justin's quieter diplomacy?
   
   
2. Does Tessa's death accomplish anything? Could she have accomplished even more if she had done more to protect her own life? Does anyone else's death accomplish anything?
   
   
3. Do you "buy" the relationship between Justin and Tessa? Do you think they would have ever gotten together in the first place? If so, why? If not, then how does this affect how you respond to the rest of the film?
   
   
4. Do you think a marriage can survive when people have very different political beliefs, or when they have jobs that might pit them against each other? Are some beliefs negotiable? If so, which ones? Is it possible to keep work separate from one's domestic life?
   
   
5. How would you have dealt with Justin's suspicions that his wife might have been seeing someone else? Should he have confronted her? If so, why, or how? If not, why not?
   
   

The Constant Gardener is rated R for language, some violent images and sexual content/nudity. Several scenes feature dead and badly damaged bodies, and much of the nudity involves a married couple, one of whom is pregnant in several scenes.

Photos © Copyright Focus Features

© Peter T. Chattaway 2005, subject to licensing agreement with Christianity Today International. All rights reserved. Click for reprint information.

The Constant Gardener closes the summer movie season with an unusually challenging thriller. The film is based on the popular novel by John le Carré and directed by Fernando Mereilles, whose acclaimed debut City of God earned him an Oscar nomination.

The title refers to the central character—British diplomat Justin Quayle(Ralph Fiennes), a man who likes to garden and stay out of trouble. But when his wife Tessa (Rachel Weisz), an activist working in Kenya, is murdered, he ends up digging into the dirt of corporate greed and its consequences on the weak and the vulnerable.

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