This movie is based on the novel by John Le Carre', adapted by Jeffrey Caine. Directed by Fernando Meirelles ( City of God) As an avid John Le Carre fan, I must admit I didn't think the movies based on his books would do much justice for his books. Boy was I wrong, especially about this one. Ralph Fiennes plays Justin Quayle, a British diplomat who plays sleuth as he tries to find out why his wife Tessa ( played by Rachel Weisz ) was murdered at an obscure outpost in Kenya.
In the book every dialog scene was fragmented, you leave scenes just before the pivotal point emerges. In the movie, director Fernando Meirelles makes it fragmented as well, in a different way. Like in the movie 'Memento', except here Meirelles starts towards the middle and it leaves enough room for present action to be in the movie, and boy did I admire the direction here. The reason the picture works so well is because Meirelles is good at telling fragmented stories and finding definite ground. It pays off really well having the movie shot entirely in Kenya. Rachel Weisz and Ralph Fiennes gave their BEST performances in this movie, stepping their skills up for their BRILLIANT director.
I wanted to start another paragraph for Ralph Fiennes because his performance alone is a spectacle. Fiennes shows his range of emotion throughout this movie, yet on another level of his performance he is continually getting angrier at drug companies and on the final level of his performance he is falling more deeply in love with his wife, while forgiving her for any action she HAD to take in order to get what she wants. Any actor could find notes to hit in this character but I believe that Ralph Fiennes would have done the best job. His performance and character is so complex and Fiennes nails it. Count on an Oscar nomination for him.
Another strong performance in this film is Rachel Weisz playing Tessa Quayle. What Weisz does is VERY strong, she embodies her characters' wit, charm and inner drive to bring down drug companies to make them stop doing what they are doing. She has a very keen sense in what she is doing and she will do ANYTHING to get what she wants and doesn't look back at what she has done.
Meirelles directed himself another masterpiece. 10/10. It is also visually stunning with breathtaking shots.
In the book every dialog scene was fragmented, you leave scenes just before the pivotal point emerges. In the movie, director Fernando Meirelles makes it fragmented as well, in a different way. Like in the movie 'Memento', except here Meirelles starts towards the middle and it leaves enough room for present action to be in the movie, and boy did I admire the direction here. The reason the picture works so well is because Meirelles is good at telling fragmented stories and finding definite ground. It pays off really well having the movie shot entirely in Kenya. Rachel Weisz and Ralph Fiennes gave their BEST performances in this movie, stepping their skills up for their BRILLIANT director.
I wanted to start another paragraph for Ralph Fiennes because his performance alone is a spectacle. Fiennes shows his range of emotion throughout this movie, yet on another level of his performance he is continually getting angrier at drug companies and on the final level of his performance he is falling more deeply in love with his wife, while forgiving her for any action she HAD to take in order to get what she wants. Any actor could find notes to hit in this character but I believe that Ralph Fiennes would have done the best job. His performance and character is so complex and Fiennes nails it. Count on an Oscar nomination for him.
Another strong performance in this film is Rachel Weisz playing Tessa Quayle. What Weisz does is VERY strong, she embodies her characters' wit, charm and inner drive to bring down drug companies to make them stop doing what they are doing. She has a very keen sense in what she is doing and she will do ANYTHING to get what she wants and doesn't look back at what she has done.
Meirelles directed himself another masterpiece. 10/10. It is also visually stunning with breathtaking shots.