The Constant Gardener [Blu-ray [Blu-ray] [2005]

I loved this movie. I was looking forward to watch it for a long time.

Great performances from Ralph Fiennes and Rachel Weisz lead this smart geo-political thriller about corrupt pharma, and their exploitation of the poor.

The first half of The Constant Gardner is mainly told in flashback as we see Ralph Fiennes' quite meek character going over his meeting and falling in love with his wife, played by Rachel Weisz, and her endeavor to shed light on the testing of a pharmaceutical drug on the local African population. It's in the second half of the film that he retraces the steps that lead to her death as he fights to uncover the conspiracy. The film is brought to life by wonderful writing and performances. The only real negative is its reliance on too many scenes of expository dialogue near the end. For an Alliance release, the picture quality is surprisingly good as their blu-rays are typically quite lackluster. The audio defaults to Dolby Digital for some reason; so, you have to manually change it to the DTS-MA track and that can only be done through the pop-up menu as there is no Top Menu. There are no extras.

A wonderful socio-political thriller! It comes from the same director of City of God. The story is interesting, which revolves around Ralph Fiennes character trying to get to the bottom of a secret involving his wife's murder, big business, and corporate corruption. Rachel Wiesz's Oscar was well-deserved. This film will not disappoint if you enjoy these types of films.