The Constant Gardener (2005)

Ralph Fiennes stars as a British diplomat whose complacency is challenged when he is forced into a soul searching quest for the reasons behind the tragic death of his activist wife (Rachel Weisz) that uncovers a sinister pharmaceutical company in cahoots with British and Kenyan governments testing a new TB drug on expendable HIV+ Africans.

Fiennes gives his most humanistic and endearing performance ever, perhaps even topping his Oscar nominated turns in "Schindler's List" and "The English Patient." Rachel Weisz is an illuminating revelation, turning in the performance of her career. Her character develops and becomes even more compelling after she dies and we learn her secrets through expertly paced flashbacks. Director Fernando Meirelles takes the amazing style he honed with "City of God" and adds a heart with "The Constant Gardener," a big heart that bleeds a beautiful cinematic poeticism onto the screen.

This film truly rewards its audience as it works on so many levels. Like this year's earlier word-of-mouth and hot-button issue sleeper, "Crash," you won't be able to stop talking about it after you leave the theater. The politics here are engaging and bound to stir up even the most complacent viewer. What's even more amazing is that all of the timely political discourse and subsequent thriller aspects of the film (courtesy of the source material, John Le Carre's novel) are wrapped up in a timeless romance. We the audience join Fiennes on his journey, and we rediscover the love story between he and his wife that anchors the film in a poetic realism usually reserved for movies with much less on their minds.

To top it off, it's all delivered in the maddeningly genius Meirelles style that took critics and audiences by storm in his debut "City of God". We have the shaky hand-held camera darting through vibrant and colorful third-world locales juxtaposed with jaw-droppingly gorgeous aerial photography of Africa in all its blazing glory. Meirelles again shows us he is a true artist willing to show both the shocking beauty and abject horror of the people and places that populate his films. Again he delivers a message that people are doing horrible things to other people the world over (be it in the form of wishy-washy governments turning a blind eye, greedy corporations putting a price tag on a human life, local thugs preying on the misfortune of their neighbors, or friends betraying friends). With "City of God" he seemed to be saying the only hope is to document it. With "The Constant Gardener" he makes that argument again and takes it one brilliant step forward. We may not be able to stop a war or a huge global injustice, but we do have the power to help one person at a time. It takes a courageous film to make such a statement, and a brilliant film-maker to deliver it, and that's just what "The Constant Gardener" does.