'Constant Gardener' needs tending

From the get-go, "The Constant Gardener" had immense potential. In fact, any movie (disregarding "Maid in Manhattan") with Ralph Fiennes has superb potential.

The sensational Brazilian director, Fernando Meirelles, held the reigns of the "The Constant Gardener," guiding his superstar actors, Fiennes ("Quiz Show," "The English Patient") and Rachel Weisz ("Constantine") to a disappointing destination.

Meirelles's freshman flick, "City of God," garnered critical acclaim and surprisingly large audiences for a foreign production. Its violently entertaining plot weaved in and out of intertwining stories. Along with Meirelles's epically grand camera shots, ?????? put Meirelles's style in the same rank of directors with Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu ("21 Grams," "Amores Perros") and Danny Boyle ("28 Days Later," "Trainspotting").

Unfortunately the super-combo of Meirelles, Fiennes, and Weisz didn't work out as planned. "The Constant Gardener," though not a bad movie, doesn't come close to meeting expectations.

Fiennes stars as Justin Quayle, an English diplomat living in Africa who has a part in overseeing an AIDS relief program. He seems more amused with his garden than his actual job. Every other scene he's pictured tending his garden like a lusting dendrophiliac, while kids in Africa go without proper treatment for AIDS.

While giving a lecture to a room of college students, he's rudely interrupted by a flurry of liberal propaganda from a hotter and more feminine version of Michael Moore. The idealistic young woman with the piping hot political fervor is Tess, Quayle's future wife, played by Rachel Weisz.

Quayle's new wife makes up for his own lack of ambition as a diplomat. It becomes clear that Quayle's sweet and adorable Tess is actually a radical activist who will stop at nothing to help the cause for AIDS relief.

To maneuver around political dead ends, Tess doesn't think twice about flirtatiously flashing her pearly whites or hesitate from promising sexual favors in order to get crucial information from high-ranking officials.

Quayle begins to notice Tess's lascivious ways and grows suspicious about the possibility of an affair.

As Tess flirts with all the big shots and corrupt government officials, the movie is both leading and misleading the moviegoer with respect to Tess's intentions. Is she the African adulterer or just a resolute AIDS activist?

Suddenly the mystery becomes the conspiracy when Tess is found murdered on her mission to excavate evidence out of corrupt officials. It then becomes Quayle's duty to find out both the mystery and the conspiracy.

Around Fiennes and Weisz are a bevy of actors characterizing the good guys and the bad guys within the whole AIDS relief organization. One of the major faults of the movie rests on the shoulders of these supporting actors. Though each has their own motives, the characters are so one-dimensional that it's hard to tell them apart, causing confusion as they reappear scene after scene. They all resemble the caricature of an old aristocratic white male. These underdeveloped characters, and the lack of distinction between them, hurt the film's fluidity.

Although Fiennes and Weisz do exceptionally well in their roles, their efforts aren't enough to right the ship.

"The Constant Gardener," like "Hotel Rwanda," tries to tackle some weighty issues, and in doing so will bring to light to the harshness of the African AIDS epidemic and the corruption that surrounds the international relief program. In this respect, the film deserves attention. But the actual moviemaking does not.

Some may call "The Constant Gardener" a political thriller. But because the audience's sentiment for Fiennes and Weisz may ring hollow, it's difficult to care about their characters' fates. In some ways, the film resembles Sydney Pollack's botched attempt with "The Interpreter," in that it was a political thriller with elements of mystery, which also failed to live up to its potential.

For the sake of future movies worth watching, hopefully "The Constant Gardener" is a lesson and a stepping-stone to the reclamation of greatness for Meirelles and a just bump in the road for Fiennes.