Hi, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab...
CITY OF GOD is, simply put, a masterpiece, a brilliant and kinetic piece of cinema that was my favorite film of 2003. Now we’ve got our first report on the new film from director Fernando Meirelles, and it sounds like this reader thought he was suffering from a sophomore slump. Check it out:
Hi Harry,
Last night I attended a screening in High Wycombe, UK of what we were told was the 'finished cut' of 'The Constant Gardener' from City of God director Fernando Meirelles.
It stars Ralph Fiennes, Rachel Weitz and Bill Nighy and is an adaptation of a novel by John Le Carre.
I was totally excited about getting to see this as City of God was, obviously one of the greatest and most innovative flicks in years. Meirelles carries his visual style across and this film is shot wonderfully but that was really the only thing it seemed to have going for it. The problems came from the first shot and built up steadily until the credits mercifully rolled.
The story concerns a British diplomat investigating the murder of his wife in Africa after she has uncovered a scheme for a big pharamceutical company to fraudulently test it's new TB medicine on poverty-stricken families.
Where to begin? Ok, the script was a big steaming turd. Written by Jeffrey Caine who seems to have moved from 80's UK TV hackery into modern UK-funded politically-correct patronising cinema (his last mound of poo being the risible 'Inside I'm Dancing' which told those of us who didn't know that people in wheelchairs are people too). Dude just can't write. Not only is this a dull adaptation, the dialogue is unbelievably bad and for some reason it seems that the cast weren't allowed to improvise around it.
It takes a lot of work to get a bad performance out of Ralph Fiennes - but here we get one. In no small part due to terribly cliche'd English dialogue. It's only when we see how bad the supporting cast are (BAAAAAAADDDDDDD!!!!!) that we see how hard Fiennes/Weisz must have worked to just come across as below par. Although Bill Nighy is, as ever, bulletproof - transcending a nothing, cliche'd role and scoring the flick's only intentional laugh.
The narrative plays out over 2 periods in time - before and after Weisz's death. This is usually done to prolong tension and release information to the audience in a timely and clever fashion, but in this film it is made clear from very early on that she has been killed for investigating the medical testing and that the British government has it's hand in it. No twists, no surprises, no tension, very little drama. We know what's happened, we know who the good guys and the bad guys are, we don't know the specifics but those are really just technicalities. All this narrative device does is throw in a lot of uneccessary scenes - the entire first hour seems pointless. Why do we need to see the couple meet and bond if the story only really starts after they've been married for a while and she's been murdered?
All the scenes in London are horribly stilted and in some cases cringeworthy to watch - the scene in which Fiennes meets Weisz was SO awful it almost seems as if Michael Winner crept onto set to direct for a day (he's giving a lecture, she stands up and says 'how can you defend a government who follows America into Iraq?', all of the other students walk out in disgust (!?!?!?), she then becomes all girly, apologises profusely for making a scene, can he ever forgive her, and then they go home and shag). It was so bad, you expect a twist to appear in which she seduced him purely to exploit him, but no!
The use of scoring also raised some giggles. It is generally sparse, but whenever a threat is issued you practically get a 'dunh dunh dunnnnnhhhhhhhhh!' on the soundtrack.
The cut came in at almost 2.5 hours and boy did it feel it. Lots of beautiful montages of Africa (the only parts of the film in which Fernando Meirelles seems to feel comfortable directing) give the flick a sense of quality but it is a truly misguided and muddled effort.
It doesn't know whether it's The Bourne Supremacy or Cry Freedom and takes an uncomfortable middle ground.
I think Fernando Meirelles is a great director but was very badly matched to this project. I'd be amazed if they can rescue this one.
If you print this, call me Videosyncratic.
Thanks, mate.
Wow. That’s pretty depressing. Still, it’s just one opinion, and it may end up being a minority opinion. There’s still a lot of time until this one hits theaters, so we’ll see then.
| 
