Look Who's Late to the Great Movies Party. Again.

When you're in high school & a critically-acclaimed movie comes out - say, The Constant Gardner for example - you pretty much don't care because it sounds a little bit boring. I mean, really, who wants to see a movie that at its heart is about - minor spoiler - shitty pharmaceutical companies? Obviously, people who aren't in high school that do things that don't involve malls for fun.

But I'm in college now & I'm a journalism major, which obviously means that now I like said film.

So yeah, that means I finally watched The Constant Gardner five years too late. As usual. But at least I know now how good it is, right?

Honestly, what's not to like? I mean, it's not a feel-good, upbeat family movie, but everything it does it pretty much does well. In writing classes, we're taught that flashbacks are bad, & much of the background & characterization we're given through flashback, but it works really well. I'm all about characters, getting to know them, & actually giving a damn, & really, the story wouldn't work at all if we weren't made to care about not just Tessa, but Justin, as well.

And on that note, Rachel Weisz & Ralph Fiennes are both fantastic in this. No wonder Rachel, especially, got so much praise for this.

It was filmed on-location in Africa, & when the cast & crew were done, they set up a trust for the slums they were filming in, which is pretty awesome. The Slumdog Millionaire creators did the same thing (and I saw that when it was in theaters so no worries there).

And now I have to go out & read the book.

Well, that & see everything else I found uninteresting at 15.