Director: Fernando Meirelles
Year Released: 2005
Rating: 1.0
Call me strange, but I'm not the kind of person who likes spending part of his Friday night going to a movie that decides it's going to lecture me for two plus hours, and that's precisely what this does. You mean to tell me that there are poor women and children in Africa (Africa!?) where evil companies (hiss!) are basically killing off people to save money for their new anti-tuberculosis drug (a new strain has since emerged, by the way)? Considering the fact that the target audience for this is already aware that there are massive problems in Africa, the preaching is redundant. Regarding the central storyline of a man investigating the death of his wife, maximum interest is based on how one views the Ralph Fiennes/Rachel Weisz connection, and I personally never felt they were together long enough to grow 'attached' to them as a couple or care about their plight (at least, not even close to the way I found myself into the Fiennes/Kristen Scott Thomas relationship in The English Patient) - Fiennes' performance is nothing astonishing, either, though that could also be due to the flaws in the rambling script. As a thriller it fails to thrill, as a message movie it fails to break ground - considering the talent involved, this is truly a disappointment.
