HEAVILY tipped for Oscar consideration, and deservedly so, Fernando Meirelles' follow-up to the breath-taking City Of God is a romantic thriller with style and intelligence in abundance.

The Constant Gardener is that rare form of filmic entertainment: a socially relevant mainstream work that provokes debate and stirs the soul.

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Like the John Le Carre novel on which is it based, beautifully adapted for the screen by Jeffrey Caine, the film unfolds as a mosaic of overlapping flashbacks, demanding the full attention of the audience.

At its heart, this is a tragic love story across two continents, centred on a quietly spoken, rather insular man who only realises how much he loves his wife when she is cruelly taken from him. In the midst of his grief, the widower stumbles upon an explosive political scandal, and ultimately lights the touch-paper, regardless of the devastating personal consequences.

The Constant Gardener is unquestionably one of the finest films of the year.

Meirelles and director of photography Cesar Charlone employ a distinctive palette, contrasting the cold blues and greens of London with the rich browns and reds of Africa. In the squalor of Kenya, where thousands exhale their last breath while the West stands idly by, the film conjures images of haunting beauty: the brilliant smiles of the children as they welcome Tessa to their village, birds taking flight over a lake.

Ralph Fiennes delivers one of the finest performances of his illustrious career as English diplomat Justin Quayle, whose carefully ordered world shatters when his activist wife Tessa (Rachel Weisz) dies in suspicious circumstances in a remote area of Northern Kenya.

Seizing the initiative for the first time in his life, Justin takes it upon himself to investigate the car accident which claimed Tessa's life, treading on the toes of the British High Commission in Nairobi. In the process, Justin uncovers a web of intrigue and deception, included a reported affair between Tessa and a doctor friend (Hubert Kounde).

Gradually, the finger of suspicion points at the upper echelons of political power, including Justin's pals Sandy Woodrow (Danny Huston) and Sir Bernard Pellegrin (Bill Nighy). As the diplomat digs deeper into Tessa's work, especially her criticism of experimental drug trials in Africa, he makes various enemies, who will stop at nothing to suppress the shocking truth and line their pockets.

The Constant Gardener condemns the greed of the West, which ravages the African continent for its own financial gain, and the corruption of the pharmaceutical industry, which puts shareholder profits ahead of philanthropic enterprise.

Why bother with the petri dish of the developing world, which continues to ravaged by Aids and malaria, when there are billions of dollars to be squeezed from the rich, bloated Western market?

Because, as Justin learns, it's the right thing to do.

See it at: UCI, Odeon