Ralph Fiennes reads the reviews for Chumscrubber

The Constant Gardener

directed by Fernando Meirelles (City of God)
screenplay by Jeffrey Caine (Goldeneye)
based on the novel by John Le Carré (The Tailor of Panama)

produced by Simon Channing (Vera Drake)

starring Ralph Fiennes (Spider), Rachel Weisz (The Mummy Returns), Danny Huston (21 Grams), Pernilla August (Star Wars II: Attack of the Clones), Pete Postlethwaite (The Lost World: Jurassic Park), Sidede Onyulo (Nowhere in Africa)

lowdown:  Conspiracy thriller set in a Kenyan pharmaceutical company.

low expectation: 

pro:  Meirelles first film since the amazing City of God
con:  Meirelles foray into English-language filmmaking is likely to go as badly as most others'

follow-up: 
     As good as it could be, I guess, but nothing remarkable.

website:  TheConstantGardener.com

synopsis/press release:
     Based on the best-selling John le Carre novel and from the Academy Award®-nominated director of "City of God." In a remote area of Northern Kenya, activist Tessa Quayle (Rachel Weisz) is found brutally murdered. Tessa's companion, a doctor (Hubert Kounde) appears to have fled the scene, and the evidence points to a crime of passion. Members of the British High Commission in Nairobi assume that Tessa's widower, their mild-mannered and unambitious colleague Justin Quayle (Ralph Fiennes), will leave the matter to them. They could not be more wrong. Haunted by remorse and jarred by rumors of his late wife's infidelities, Quayle surprises everyone by embarking on a personal odyssey that will take him across three continents. Using his privileged access to diplomatic secrets, he will risk his own life, stopping at nothing to uncover and expose the truth -- a conspiracy more far-reaching and deadly than Quayle could ever have imagined. -- © Focus

recommended alternative:

Expectation Key


there's no possible way I will ever see this

I might eventually see this but I'm not really expecting much

anticipating the release of this one but I'm sure to be left unsatisfied

such high expectation of this film only leaves room for disappointment