7.3 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
A widower is determined to get to the bottom of a potentially explosive secret involving his wife's murder, big business, and corporate corruption.
Starring: Ralph Fiennes, Rachel Weisz, Danny Huston, Bill Nighy, Pete PostlethwaiteRomance | 100% |
Thriller | Insignificant |
Drama | Insignificant |
Mystery | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.84:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
French: DTS 5.1
English SDH
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region free
Movie | 3.5 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 2.0 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
The Constant Gardener, Director Fernando Meirelles' (City of God) acclaimed 2005 politically-charged Thriller, comes sourced from the novel of the same named penned by Author John le Carré, published in 2001. The film, starring Ralph Fiennes and Rachel Weisz, explores the dangerous, unseen world of political corruption meets big money corporate interests and follows one couple's journey, across different timeframes and under different circumstances, to unravel the truth. The picture is rich and full of life yet dark and despairing all at once, a firm, well-crafted Thriller that wears its ambitions and its messages on its sleeve but that nevertheless entices its audience with a provocative narrative framed in oftentimes gorgeous photography and defined by several top-tier lead performances. The only major drawback comes in the film's somewhat stale story that pits the corporate world against individual crusaders, but it's nevertheless a well-done film with a dominating technical production in support.
Unwelcome news.
The Constant Gardener features a good all-around 1080p transfer. The filmed image retains a fairly consistent, evident, but unobtrusive grain structure that only infrequently gives way to a somewhat pastier, cleaner appearance. Details are firm but not quite tangibly lifelike, with a prevailing softness evident through much of the film. Still, facial features are nicely preserved in close-up shots, while various shots of tough African terrain are sharp and vivid. Colors often shift with location, with the image featuring a bright, hot, slightly over-saturated color scheme in African exteriors and favoring a gray, coolish palette away from those exteriors. Shadow detail is often a little less than ideal with light crush evident in darker backdrops. Skin tones vary with the aforementioned lighting and contrast. Generally, the image is clean and features no obtrusive, excessive flaws. Overall, this is a quality transfer from Universal.
The Constant Gardener's DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 lossless soundtrack impresses from the outset with a nicely enveloping background din at an airport that's full and lively, making fine use of the entire 5.1 configuration. The track further engages with a healthy surround component and excellent spacing, whether amongst large crowds or in a lecture hall through which dialogue lightly and naturally reverberates. Music is controlled and pleasing, with a welcome full stage participation and smooth, accurate delivery and clarity. Dialogue is a dominant force, of course, and the spoken word comes through with commendable effortlessness and intelligibility from the center.
The Constant Gardener contains several extras but no DVD or digital copy. No "top menu" is included. All extras and settings must be
accessed in-movie from the "pop-up" menu button.
The Constant Gardener is a better film along its technical axis than it is along its dramatic axis. The core story feels not unimportant or uneventful but rather like something of an emotional facilitator, an easy cause to get behind that makes a good starting point for a Thriller than can easily differentiate heroes and villains. In this case, the villains are stock and the heroes, too, aren't particularly deep or interesting. They fight a battle that's part of a much larger war of ideas that have seen multiple interpretations in the guise of entertainment. That's not to degrade the story, its meaning, its impact, or its purpose, but the film often feels more like an avenue of convenience more so that something more novel that might have made a larger impact. The film unquestionably works better when considering its technical merits, including several flawless performances and its exquisite direction and photographic style. It's a worthwhile movie but one that lacks dramatic novelty or creativity, though it does mean well in how it plays with the ideas on hand. Universal's Blu-ray release of The Constant Gardener features good video and audio. Supplements for this catalogue title are unsurprisingly recycled from the DVD release. Recommended.
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