The Constant Gardener (2005) - LightShed 8

The movie stars Ralph Fiennes and Rachel Weisz. I was ill (yes, migraines) through the last part of the movie, so I actually missed on a lot of it, but I was lucid through most of the movie, enough to understand and appreciate the role of our gay here. I liked what I saw.

Our gay here is Weisz’ doctor and humanitarian friend Hubert Kounde (I don’t remember seeing him in anything else). We (and Ralph Fiennes) are lead to believe during a good part of the movie that Weisz is cheating on him (Fiennes) with Kounde. Only after Weisz’ death (she dies early in the movie so we are not attached to the character enough to make us cry over her death – which was good I think) Fiennes asks Weisz’ friend if she knew about a possible affair between his wife and Kounde. Weisz’ friend then shows Fiennes’ a picture of Weisz, Kounde, and another guy, and she says that other guy was Kounde’s boyfriend. Fiennes then wondered how come he never knew Kounde was gay, and he is then reminded that Kounde kept his homosexuality in the closet because homosexuality is a crime in Africa (where most of the movie takes place).

That was great. The news that Kounde was gay came as a relief to Fiennes, and we were also reminded of the absurdity of the laws of Africa (as it pertains to homosexuality). Moreover, Kounde’s character is braver than a lesbian and accompanies Weisz in a daunting crusade to find the truth about some human rights violations perpetrated by evil drug companies. Yay!
The movie did not get a greater LightShed score because of one comment made by Bill Nighy (did he play a gay rock star in Love Actually?). Nighy is a high ranking diplomat who at some point tries to make Fiennes believe that Kounde actually killed Weisz. Fiennes then mentions ironically that gay men do not usually rape and kill their female friends, to which Nighy replies something like “Well, I knew some pretty savage queens in my time.” It is true though that the negative comment could be dismissed as something uttered by a villain in an attempt to save face.

Comments

[Queer Beacon]

Thanks for the info. I'll get the DVD and review Love Actually. I had seen it in the theaters when it came out...

[smeth]

I don't think the Bill Nighy charater in Love Actually was gay, I think he and his manager were just a couple straight guys who had difficulty expressing friendship. Why else would the Nighy character end up with blonde babes? The dvd extres show a lesbian couple that got deleted.