my oscar movie diary 2/9

[constintina]

In which I share my thoughts on the films I have seen as part of my neurotic preparation for the Oscars.

today we have:

The Constant GardenerThe bleached out film stock not only serves to designate this movie as “edgy”, but to highlight the unbearable whiteness of it’s subject. Yes, it takes place laregly in Nairobi, but that’s no reason to have

Comments

[elevenoclock]

hm.. i have to disagree with you in a friendly way, which is making me self-reflectively 'huh?'; maybe i'm not picking up on the offensiveness and racism from my perspective. but i guess for now i would opine that sure, the main character is a white lady do-gooder romanticized martyr, but i think that the movie centering the narrative around that couple isn't racist in and of itself. the racism/fear of the main characters is addressed head-on when the ralph fiennes character refuses to give a ride to the african folks, and when the other english dude is like, we've got to get her to a real hospital, etc. i think it has a somewhat more nuanced outlook than many films with similarities. dunno. i wasn't amazed by it but i appreciated some elements. i can't think of many other recent films that are dealing with the political nature of AIDS treatment,.

the soundtrack-the one thing i noticed was an old geoffrey orema (sp?) song and to me, its used appropriately. the other stuff kind of passed me by.

i didn't know it was supposed to even be a thriller, the pharmaceutical stuff, it is completely obvious. anyway, its really interesting to hear your take on it.

[constintina]

I can't think of any other recent films (at least big, oscar-nominated films that played in malls and whatnot) that dealt with the political nature of AIDS treatment, and I am glad that this one did. And I also agree with you that it presents a more nuanced take on racism/white-people-doing-good-in-the-third-world/whatevs than we can generally expect from such, unfortunately.

Most of my problem with The Constant Gardner has to do with it's location within a much broader phenomenon, rather than the particulars of this film in and of itself (apart from the fact that it was at least marketed as a thriller, and it was not thrilling.) it's still yet another movie about heroic white people
"helping" POCs who do not get to be fully formed characters themselves. even rachel weisz's gay doctor friend only gets a couple lines--would it have been too much to have him be more than a plot device?