18. The Constant Gardener
If, like me, you think Ralph Fiennes is a pretentious, over-rated arse and Rachel Weisz is an obnoxious, over-bearing talent stretching mediocrity to its very limits then this is definitely the flick for you! They deliver performances here that are absolutely opinion-changing in their exquisiteness. After his wife (played by Weitz) is murdered in Kenya, Fiennes Justin Quayle - a mild, low-level British diplomat - must investigate her death, their relationship, and his own heart. In flashbacks, we see them meet, marry, and fall in love; we follow her in the teeming streets and clinics of Nairobi trying to help the poverty-stricken and dying. In his own investigation, Justin faces his memories, his colleagues, local police, hired thugs, and a pharmaceutical corporation who will do anything to stop the truth from seeing the light of day. This film really is as ace as youve heard it to be and if you havent checked it already then really do hunt it out. Its timely, its thought-provoking and, in the ever-excellent Bill Nighy, you have one of the big screens best-ever representations of what real-life evil looks like!