Cold Hot: Constant Gardener
‘How’s…Gloria?’
ph. Focus
He says Gloria’s fine then asks Justin Quayle (Ralph Fiennes) about Tessa (Rachel Weisz), which means he’s nervous but we won’t find that out why yet.
—
‘That’s bullshit. That’s bullshit. You have to take responsibility. You are being paid to apologise for this pathetic country of Britain, and he can explain to us why we burned our diplomatic credentials and why, why we’re killing, you know, thousands of innocent people…just for-just for some barrels of oil…and a photo opportunity on the White House lawn. Why?’ And more journalists walk out.
Not to take away from Weisz’ Oscar winning performance, but if this was the audition piece, Kate Winslet would have gotten a closer chance in becoming Tessa. I also wanna find out how her campaign went, seeing that one of Weisz’ competitors is Michelle Williams for Brokeback Mountain, another Focus Features release. Yes I’m the last gay person to see the latter film so of course I can’t compare the two performances, but I wonder if Focus went full engine on Brokeback or if they focused on getting acting wins in their other movies while paying more attention to getting picture and directing wins for Ang Lee.
And no matter, Tessa and Justin will make up eventually.
—
I love you.
—
Every other movie reminds me of every other movie. Like how Fernando Meirelles‘ The Constant Gardener differentiates some of the Britain scenes and the African scenes by showing the former with a grayish blue tint and the latter with yellow, just like Traffic did. But this movie does it better, more crisp, despite the shaky cam. And it doesn’t do the colours too often.
Or how the paid assassins riding into the village like apocalyptic horsemen, like the raid scene in The Searchers, but this time the focus is on the victims and not the horsemen. Like the John Ford film, white characters are mixed in with the natives but this time it’s paid African militia men killing their own kind, hoping to get Justin with them.
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Okinawa Assault 
Generally I love Kate much more than Weisz, but even as I see who Kate could nail this I staunchly believe that no one could have done this as well as Rachel. Her cadence just fits it perfectly, but then I think that she just have this way of getting under the skin of her characters.
For example, I kept thinking she’d be all wrong for Hypatia in AGORA but watching the movie I couldn’t think of anyone but her in the role.
(PS. I loathe, LOATHE Michelle Williams in BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN.)
June 1, 2011 at 6:01 pm
Yup. Weisz singing in Italian was perfection and no other person can give that warmth. Yes, Winslet has warmth too, but there’s a childlike element to her (haven’t seen Midlred Pierce to prove otherwise), while Weisz is more mature.
Also, I don’t understand why I still have my gay card and I haven’t seen Brokeback yet. So Hathaway > Williams in the movie?
June 2, 2011 at 12:40 am
For me definitely, and I don’t even like Hathaway that much. I’m still a bit confused as to what it was that gave Williams the edge for a nomination.
June 2, 2011 at 6:10 pm