Movie Reviews Archive

This spin off film from a Japanese TV series suffers on two counts, firstly it’s trying to be Die Hard in a hospital but hasn’t got nearly enough action to keep the audiences attention, and secondly it relies too heavily on viewers having seen the original series, something most western audiences won’t have done as the DVD release lacked English subtitles (makes you wonder why they bothered putting them on this really).

Picking up (I’m guessing) where the series left off, we find police officer Natsumi Yukihira visiting here daughter in hospital. It seems the kid was a victim of a car bombing, with Yukihira the intended target. It’s not long before the hospital is taken over by a mask wearing band of villains, who not only kidnap the a high ranking police official who’s receiving treatment at the hospital but also get there hands on some Anthrax that’s stored there. Why is Anthrax stored in a hospital? Simply because the plot requires it. Likewise there is only enough vaccine to cure one person because Yukihira’s daughter becomes infected and to much vaccine wouldn’t be dramatic enough. So it’s Yukihira Vs a gang of heavily armed terrorists, which may sound exciting (if derivative) but really isn’t. Yukihira isn’t much of an action hero, she only takes out a couple of the bad guys, with the bulk of the action (and there isn’t much) falling to fellow officer Yuji Kokubo.

In the modern world big business has as much to hide as governments, and Fernando Meirelles’ film of spy story supremo John le Carré’s novel is an espionage story where the villains are no longer foreign nations but rather money hungry corporations. At its heart though The Constant Gardener isn’t a spy movie at all, it’s a love story with a political message.

Ralph Fiennes and Rachel Weisz have great onscreen chemistry, which helps the film no end as there’s little time to build up their relationship, one minute they’re having sex after Fiennes delivers a dull lecture the next they’re off to Africa as man and wife. Fiennes’ dull diplomat and Weisz’s left wing activist seem an unlikely couple but the actors make it work and without that bond the film would fall flat, as Fiennes’ love is what propels the story forward as he searches for the truth behind his wife’s death (that’s not a huge spoiler, we learn early on the she’s dead with their relationship shown in flashback).

As Fiennes digs deeper he not only discovers a web of political and industrial corruption but also his wife’s ideals, something he’d never really understood before. The film interlinks this love story with an exploration of the current way of life of the African people and then dresses them both up in the garb of a thriller – clandestine meetings, fake identities, and even a car chase come into play but this isn’t a thriller that plays by the rules, there’s no action packed climax, with the final confrontation between Fiennes and his wife’s killers takes place off screen.

Frederick Forsyth’s onscreen blurb at the start of the film tells the viewer that the film (of his novel) is based on real events but how closely the film mirrors the facts isn’t really important, it could be complete fiction and it would still be gripping thriller.

When freelance journalist Peter Miller is given the diary of a recently deceased survivor of the Nazi concentration camps, he, somewhat out of character, becomes obsessed with tracking down the camp’s commanding officer, Eduard Roschmann. Why the mercenary Miller is so affected by the journal is kept secret until the films climactic confrontation with Roschmann, but along the way he becomes involved with Israeli Intelligence, goes undercover to infiltrate ODESSA (the organisation formed by former SS officers) and has to contend with an ODESSA assassin and Derek Jacobi’s German accent.

That probably makes the film sound more action packed than it is, as it’s really quite a talky thriller; there are no car chases, no shootouts, and no explosions. It builds tension from the situation, when Miller is grilled by one of the ODESSA leaders we know his life hangs in the balance and all it will take is one mistake to give him away. Even when Miller is beaten after attending a rally of war veterans it takes place off screen.

Future Doctor Who companion, Mary Tamm, plays Miller’s exotic dancer girlfriend and adds a bit of glamour to the dreary Berlin locations while Derek Jacobi plays an ODESSA forger who’s also a bit of a mummy’s boy but it’s Jon Voight’s film, at least until that final confrontation.