man on a mission; Ralph Fiennes plays an indifferent diplomat galvanized to action in "The Constant Gardener", while Elijah Wood is a writer on a pilgrimage in "Everything Is Illuminated".(Movie Review)

ustin Quayle (Ralph Fiennes), the reluctant hero of The Constant Gardener, is something of a milquetoast. A mid-level functionary at the British High Commission in Nairobi, he shows no burning concern for foreign affairs or even for his own advancement-he prefers puttering around his flower beds. But Justin's lukewarm existence heats up once he meets Tessa (Rachel Weisz), a sexy political activist who first pulls him into bed, then into marriage. No self-effacing wifey, Tessa immediately stirs things up, digging into the dirty work of multinational corporations in Africa and raising impolitic questions at consular soirees. Justin prefers to ignore her grand causes-until Tessa and a local doctor are brutally murdered in the barrens of northern Kenya. Suddenly energized, he begins an investigation that shows him the harsh truth of drug-company profiteering, exposes the cynical power plays of Her Majesty's Foreign Service, and leads him to treasure Tessa even more in death than he did in life.

Although Justin's story is as British as a cucumber sandwich, The Constant Gardener was directed by Fernando Meirelles, the Brazilian director who won an Oscar nomination for his luridly powerful potboiler about the Rio slums, City of God. He's an odd choice. For while Meirelles has many virtues-a keen eye, a sure touch with actors, a propulsive sense of rhythm-his impatient style is too overheated for a grown-up tale about a diffident bureaucrat. Luckily, the movie was adapted from the novel by John le Carre, the finest thriller writer of the last 50 years, who patiently spins a spiderweb of intrigue filament by filament. Le Carre weaves together Justin's personal guilt at his wife's death, the skulduggery of pharmaceutical giants, and the purring machinations of career diplomats-there's one niftily played by Bill Nighy of Love Actually fame-who instruct you on the correct kind of dover sole to order at their men's club even as they're arranging to have you whacked.

The Constant Gardener has been hailed for targeting greedy drug companies-a group about as popular as Big Tobacco-yet it is equally compelling for what it says about sex roles. It's an enduring stereotype that men stand for order and sweet reason while women are the embodiment of emotion and chaos. This idea echoes through Western culture, from the word hysteria, which comes from the Greek term for womb, to those classic sitcoms about out-of-control women-think of astronaut Larry Hagman forever trying to keep Jeannie in her bottle. A similar dynamic appears in Meirelles's film, when Justin, like a typical husband, keeps telling the headlong Tessa to calm down, see the big picture, and realize that she can't save every single African life. But to borrow a phrase from Ogden Nash, she would rather be right than reasonable. And though it gets her killed, ...