|
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
Director: Shane Black
Cast: Robert Downey Jr., Val Kilmer, Michelle Monaghan
In the years after Scream, it quickly became apparent that films acknowledging the tricks and clichés of genre filmmaking
could be just as dull as those which pretended not to notice them. The self-referential/post-modern/winking just made what
was tired before seem exhausting. What the Scream rip-offs (and, eventually, the Scream series itself) forgot was that all
the peeks behind the curtain didn't matter if the viewers didn't care what was in front of the curtain. Old-fashioned virtues
like intriguing characters, a compelling plot, and exciting filmmaking don't hurt either. Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang has one foot
in Scream's deconstruct-as-we-go-along approach, but it's just one element kicking around the audacious, sure-footed directorial
debut of screenwriter Shane Black.
In the early '90s, Black was the highest-paid writer in Hollywood, thanks to Lethal Weapon and The Last Boy Scout. But
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang is only Black's second produced screenplay since 1996's The Long Kiss Goodnight. (It follows 1999's virtually
unseen A.W.O.L.) That might explain why he's made a film about second chances, filled with a cast in need of them, specifically
Robert Downey Jr., Val Kilmer, and, in a supporting role, Corbin Bernsen. Together, they're the hottest lineup of 1991. So
it makes sense that an impatience with Los Angeles, moviemaking, and genre films fuels KKBB, a noir-inspired L.A. mystery
that isn't afraid to show some satirical teeth.
It opens, however, on the other coast of the USA, with Downey stumbling from a botched robbery into a screen test that
takes him to Hollywood. There he begins researching a role with gay private eye Val Kilmer, and he hooks up with a lost high-school
love (Michelle Monaghan) whose chance encounter with a strung-out actor (nice touch, that) who stumbles into her house one
night might be her last stab at finding fame beyond her previous work in beer commercials.
There's a mystery, of course, inspired by an entry in Brett Halliday's extensive series of Michael Shayne novels. When
the film sinks into the story's mechanics, it loses some of the crazy energy that drives its first few reels, but when the
momentum of play between fiction and reality, and how the illusions of one influence the other, don't carry it, the acidic
dialogue and winning characters do. Playing a man who has to learn to stop acting like a tough guy and be one, Downey sinks
into the meaty role, and Kilmer's clipped delivery creates a character as hardboiled in his own way as the heroes of the Raymond
Chandler novels that give Kiss Kiss Bang Bang its chapter titles.
If only he didn't seem more asexual than gay, Kilmer might have been a giant step forward for gay action heroes instead
of just the first one of any significance. (Just a continuity word though - was Kilmer in and out of a diet regime during
filming? His fat face/thin face variances are very disconcerting!) Black's sadistic streak remains as uncomfortable as it
ever was, and his direction is very much in the house style of producer Joel Silver. But both elements perfectly suit the
material, which sneaks in a lot of sly stuff beneath the slick surface. The film itself may be the slyest bit of all, proving
that it's possible to come back not just adequately, but better than before.
The Constant Gardener
Cast & Credits
Justin Quayle: Ralph Fiennes
Tessa Quayle: Rachel Weisz
Sandy Woodrow: Danny Huston
Arnold Bluhm: Hubert Kounde
Sir Bernard Pellegrin: Bill Nighy
Lorbeer: Pete Postlethwaite
Directed by Fernando Meirelles
Written by Jeffrey Caine, based on the novel by John Le Carre
Running time: 129 minutes.
At the beginning of The Constant Gardener Fernando Meirelles' brilliant and haunting adaptation of John Le Carre's best-seller,
a man is called into a morgue to identify the corpse of his wife. Although he recognises and identifies her easily enough,
there is a certain sense in which he has no idea of who she is or how her beliefs could have led her to wind up on a cold
slab after being brutalised so savagely that the sight of her body causes another onlooker to instantly vomit in horror. To
his credit, the man realises this and begins to investigate, in his own quiet and methodical manner, what happened - in order
to honour her memory.
To his shock and surprise, he finds himself rediscovering what it was about her that he fell in love with in the first
place. What unravels about her life and death, not to mention how he discovers it and what results from it, makes for one
of the most mesmerising films that you will see this year (or possibly next).
The man is Justin (Ralph Fiennes), a British career diplomat who believes that the best way to approach both his job and
life is to go about them in the quietest and most unassuming manner possible. The woman is Tessa (Rachel Weisz), a brash activist
who believes that the best way to effect change is to confront those responsible for the ills of the world head-on without
relenting, until the desired changes occur. They meet in a college classroom where Justin is lecturing a group of largely
apathetic students while Tessa self-righteously shouts down his every comment.
Despite that initial bump, there is an undeniable attraction between the two and they soon marry. Although Justin loves
her, he doesn't quite understand her or her confrontational attitude towards life - especially when many of those confrontations
are aimed at the very people that he has to deal with on a daily basis. For her, she can't understand why he is content to
let matters lie instead of becoming outraged at the obvious injustices in the world.
Things come to a head when Tessa learns that a giant pharmaceutical company is testing an unproven drug used to combat
HIV in desperately poor African villages without informing the unsuspecting guinea pigs of the possible dangers. Tessa begins
to make waves and learns that the company has asked certain government officials to keep track of her activities. It is on
a trip to Kenya with a fellow activist that they are waylaid and brutally killed in the desert. To the surprise of everyone,
including himself, Justin decides to investigate the circumstances surrounding her death and discovers frightening links between
the crime, the pharmaceutical company and high-ranking government officials. More surprisingly, he begins to truly understand
Tessa and what drove her to such lengths during the course of his investigation and as he proceeds further and further, it
is as if he is truly falling love with the real her for the first time.
One of the brilliant things about "The Constant Gardener" is the way that it demonstrates that the story of
a film is often less important in the long run than the manner in which the story is told. This film tells its story using
a fractured narrative structure that jumps back and forth in time and starts with the knowledge that Tessa is dead - a structure
that adds considerable weight and meaning to the flashback scenes since we know what the end result of her behaviour and actions
is going to be. In print Le Carre told his story in a similar manner and this is a written method that is easy enough to pull
off if things get too complicated or confused, the reader can simply turn back a few pages and get back up to speed. Obviously,
a film does not allow for a similar luxury (at least not before it hits DVD) and attempting such a structure is an enormous
risk - if it doesn't come off correctly it can wind up seeming like a pointless distraction. Director Meirelles admitted that
he did attempt to edit a more straightforward version of the film and found that it didn't have the required emotional impact
so he went back to Le Carre's original system. It works beautifully and lends an extra dramatic edge to the earlier scenes
that might not have existed in a more conventional version.
Equally striking about The Constant Gardener is the palpable sense of anger that seethes throughout the film. Although
one might have assumed that the end of the Cold War could possibly have signalled the end of the writing career of John Le
Carre, who famously dealt with the subject in such works as The Spy Who Came in From the Cold, being forced to find new subject
matter seems to have unlocked something in him - as his recent works have become more and more pointed as to what he perceives
as the social and ethical injustices in the world today. Here, he takes dead aim at a variety of targets - the chief ones
being the large corporations/pharmaceutical companies in this case who ruthlessly exploit the people of the Third World in
order to make a larger profit and who just as ruthlessly deal with those who try to get in their way. Government officials
refuse to intervene, either because they are in the pocket of those corporations or simply because they don't want to make
waves. In Meirelles, Le Carre has found a director who is perfectly in tune with those jaundiced sentiments and the result
is a film that serves as a primal scream of righteous indignation that refuses to pull any punches by letting viewers off
the hook with cartoonish villains or an out-of-the-blue happy ending.
The villains here are all the more frightening because they are the people who appear daily on the financial pages and
while there are slight triumphs in the end, there is also the sense that business as usual will continue until more people
like Tessa and, eventually, Justin are willing to take a stand.
Meirelles became one of the most highly acclaimed filmmakers around based on the surprise international success of his
mightily impressive 2002 film "City of God". Once again he conveys both immense style and visual flourish throughout
"The Constant Gardener", the most obvious example being the way he shoots the British-based scenes in a cool, monochromatic
style while filming the African sequences in rich and lustrous colours - proving here that he is just as skilled at telling
a story. Although City of God may have earned Meirelles an enormous amount of publicity and hype, it is his work here that
proves without a doubt that he is a monumental talent.
For all of his efforts, though, what really gives The Constant Gardener its heart and soul are the spellbinding performances
from Ralph Fiennes and Rachel Weisz in the lead roles. At first glance Fiennes would seem to have an unpromising role as his
character basically a reactor rather than an instigator but he finds an angle to it that keeps him from coming off as just
a dull do-gooder. Although he never bursts out into action heroics, the point in which he does finally begin to break free
of his staid and steady life in order to take a stand is just as thrilling in its own way. Weisz, a wonderful actress - who
is sadly still best known for appearing in the utterly worthless "Mummy" movies - does some truly extraordinary
things with the role of Tessa. Instead of portraying her as some kind of noble saint, she bravely paints her as a not-entirely-likeable
person - the kind of nagging/scolding type who perpetually shows you how every single thing you say or do oppresses one group
or another - and then allows her passion and determination to make the world a fairer and more just place by any means necessary.
Her decent character shines through so that you truly understand why she goes to the lengths that she does and why Justin
would be enchanted by her despite their seeming incompatibility.
I strongly urge you - do not miss this truly outstanding piece of work.
|
