The Constant Gardener

Last 2 weeks ago, I went to a pirate DVD store operated nearby my house, thinking of buying a dvd or 2 to relax my mind and to kill my time, after working day and night for 2 different organisations for 3 days in a row..(well, I think these 3 days were the most productive days of my life for this month:0)).

I was spoilt for choices..as I've already had most of my favourite movies, and the movies that I really want (one of them is Mean Streets, 1973 - an independent and low budget film by Martin Scorsese starring by Robert de Niro.. anyone??) were not there..so I just flip the catalogue one by one..fishing for something worth to spend for..and there goes the Constant Gardener, the movie that Astro kept on previewing for quite sometimes. It catched my eyes, so I picked it up and read the summary behind it..and without hesitation I bought it. RM8 per DVD..3 for RM20..so I bought 3 dvds..The Constant Gardener, The Pulp Fiction (for the 2nd times as I lost the previous one) and Point Break.

A moment later, there I am..lying in front of my tv set, watching The Constant Gardener...

'The Constant Gardener' is a actually conspiracy thriller concerning the malpractice of major pharmaceutical companies in Africa... (sincerely, I've never heard something like this before, this film has opened my eyes regarding this issues)...and the other half of the film details in flashback the love between one British diplomat named Justin Quayle (Ralph Fiennes) and an activist Tessa (Rachel Weisz - Runaway Jury if I'm not mistaken).

Suddenly Justin and Tessa are married and Tessa asked Justin if she can accompany him on his posting to Africa. He is quite sceptical in letting her go, and rightly so because on an ill-advised trip to a small town she is brutally murdered. Haunted by remorse and jarred by rumors of his late wife's infidelities, this guy surprises everyone by embarking on a personal odyssey that took him across three continents, to uncover and expose the truth - a conspiracy more far-reaching and deadly than Quayle could ever have imagined. .

Then he found out that the murder of his beloved wife was because of her reports which concerns on the plight of the African people who are dying of AIDS and TB while the world's major pharmaceutical companies continue to get richer. The report details out a conspiracy in which one company is illegally testing unfinished drugs on poor African villagers with fatal results.

The Constant Gardener is set in Northern Kenya where the impoverished citizens are treated like guinea pigs and exploited by their own government, foreign businessmen, and greedy drug companies. Kenyans are promised treatment for AIDS on the condition they take a tuberculosis vaccine that’s just in the clinical testing stages. When some of the test subjects have a fatal reaction to the drug, their deaths are covered up in a conspiracy involving the British High Commission, pharmaceutical companies, and corrupt African officials. (now I wonder whether this ciscumstances really happened in Kenya or other African country or it is just a fiction)

This film is a rare sort of thriller that refuses to resolve real-life issues for the sake of feel-good entertainment and the well-carved, flashback-laden structure keep us guessing about quite a bit for a good strecth of the picture. Go find it guys..

p/s: so the conclusion is..my investment for about RM6.70 (1 DVD = RM8, buy 3 for RM20..so RM20/3 = RM6.70) is worth every penny.. :0)