The constant gardener

A British diplomat investigating the murder of his wife in Africa realizes that she was working as a spy and was getting involved in a bigger game. As we go through his memories we see the whole relationship unfolding and his inner conflicts whether it was just a 'marriage of convenience' for her.

The problem is of genre. People expecting a spy movie will end up with an emotional drama in their hands and those who are expecting a drama will get a sort of spy movie. Bottom line: both the groups will not be satisfied.

The movie is made in the 'self conscious' school of direction where actors get very less dialogue to speak and they pass time staring at each other.( Remember the staring contests by the Bacchans in 'Sarkar?')

Understatement is the rule and so though many central characters die you won't see the bullets being fired or even the dead bodies.

The movie contains two three different streams of plot. So it is not able to pursue all of them to full advantage in two hours.
But such things always occur when you adapt a novel. Novelists are lucky bastards- they get 500 pages so that even the kid peeing on the sidewalk in the story gets to talk about his life.

Ralph Fiennes is nice as usual- he should have been the next Bond. But I don’t understand why Rachel Weisz was nominated for an Oscar for her performance in this movie.