HOW 'THE CONSTANT GARDENER' GREW IT TOOK COMMITTED STARS, A PLIANT PRODUCER AND VISIONARY DIRECTOR NOT AFRAID TO PRUNE.

Byline: Glenn Whipp Film Writer

Words get in the way.

At least they have in the past when adapting John le Carre's densely plotted, dialogue-driven spy thrillers for the screen. Putting le Carre's sad-sack spies - typically tortured souls as far from James Bond as a martini that's stirred, not shaken - into a two-hour film and condensing 500 pages of complex characters and intricate story lines has flummoxed directors ranging from John Boorman to Sydney Lumet over the years.

``It's no surprise that the best le Carre movies have been TV miniseries,''says Ralph Fiennes. ``Too often, the movies based on his books are slaves to the plot, which makes for a stodgy movie that just kind of plods along.''

The cool Brit Fiennes, known for playing haunted, enigmatic characters in movies like ``The English Patient,'' would be an obvious choice to play one of le Carre's agonized heroes. But now that he has finally been cast in such a role, playing a reluctant crusader in ``The Constant Gardener,'' Fiennes finds himself in anything but a typical le Carre film.

``And that, of course, is why I was interested in doing it,'' Fiennes says.

Producer Simon Channing Williams, worried that ``Gardener'' would become the latest le Carre adaptation to ``get stuck in a 'middle-class British male' box,'' hired ``City of God'' director Fernando Meirelles to make the movie and take it in a different direction. (Of course, this was after the very English Mike Newell dropped out to make the latest ``Harry Potter'' movie.) The end result is a near-perfect translation that keeps the spirit of the book while turning it into a deeply memorable cinematic experience.

``The Constant Gardener,'' which opens Wednesday, begins with a death. Career diplomat Justin Quayle (Fiennes) is taken to a morgue in Northern Kenya to identify the remains of his activist wife, Tessa (Rachel Weisz). Tessa had been investigating the shady practices of a huge pharmaceutical company in Kenya. Justin, never one to rock the boat, looked the other way while his wife delved into increasingly dangerous waters.

Now, haunted by the rumors surrounding Tessa - Was she unfaithful to him? Did she even love him to begin with? - Justin begins an investigation of his own, simultaneously going after the drug companies and rediscovering the woman he loved. It's a love story, a thriller and an indictment of the pharmaceutical industry, not to mention a visual knockout much like Meirelles' heralded ``City of God.'' (Oscar-nominated cinematographer Cesar Charlone again collaborates with Meirelles.)

``It's not one genre, then another, then another,'' Weisz says. ``They're all interwoven and dependent on each other. It's about the story. And it's not a preachy movie, which it could have been.''

And, indeed, Meirelles admits it was, at least in his first cut of the movie. The Brazilian director groups his movies together as tales of exclusion - ``Domesticas'' (maids: living in your home, but not part of it), ``City of God'' (slum dwellers completely disregarded by society) and now ``The Constant Gardener,'' this time with the haves exploiting, not ignoring, the have-nots while chasing a jackpot payout.

Le Carre's novel is packed with damning information on pharmaceutical companies - Big Pharma, by shorthand - and Meirelles, likewise, initially tried to do the same with his film. He shot a documentary about Big Pharma for ``Gardener,'' which would be seen from time to time as Weisz's Tess did research on her computer.

But Meirelles ended up cutting all the footage. He also dropped an expensive, seven-minute thriller sequence shot in Manitoba, where Fiennes' Justin meets a drug researcher who is eventually killed in a gun-blazing car chase.

``My first cut was three hours, and from that, it could have been a more thrillerlike film, or it could have been a political drama with more information,'' Meirelles says. ``But the strongest element was the love story. So after watching the whole thing, I decided to trim the other two parts of the story and keep the love story as the axle.'' (The movie now runs 2 hours, 10 minutes.)

``Anyway, it was too preachy,'' Meirelles adds. ``It was like my voice telling the audience, 'See what the drug companies do!' It's better when it's subtle.''

Meirelles shot the movie in London, Berlin and Manitoba, but mostly in Kenya, in and around Nairobi. One reason he agreed to make ``Gardener'' - and, since ``City of God,'' Meirelles has turned down a lot of offers, including ``Collateral'' - was that he had just visited Kenya, researching an upcoming screenplay with ``City of God'' writer Braulio Mantovani. He loved the country, the people and already had laid the groundwork to film a movie there.

Then he just had to convince producer Williams that it was the right call.

``They wanted to shoot in South Africa because that's the standard choice,'' Meirelles says. ``But I took them to Kenya, they met people from this little production company, and we traveled around for seven weeks to locations we were supposed to reproduce in South Africa. Then we flew to South Africa, where we were supposed to stay for 10 days. On the second day, Simon said, 'We're wasting our time here. We should be in Kenya.' And - whoosh - we flew back.''

Meirelles loves to shoot on the fly, improvising scenes on location when inspiration hits him. (Fiennes says the director ``possesses a degree of impatience.'') Much of ``The Constant Gardener'' is shot in Nairobi's vast Kibera shantytown, where nearly 1 million people live in abject poverty.

``The movie is as much about Kenya as it is about Justin and Tessa and Big Pharma,'' Fiennes says. ``You see everything - the poverty, but also the life, the spirit.''

Adds Weisz: ``You went in thinking, 'I'm going to feel really guilty and that this is a tragedy,' and it is a tragedy, but it became quickly apparent that that's a very patronizing point of view. On some level, I wasn't sure who should feel sorry for whom. They had this spiritual wealth. There was life there! In the West, we have all these things, but what have we given up for it? People go shopping to feel better about their miserable lives.''

Meirelles' next movie (the one he was researching in Kenya two years ago) will focus on that very dichotomy. Calling it, for now, ``Intolerance: The Sequel,'' the movie will feature several characters from around the world - a runner in Kenya, a student in the Philippines planning to be a terrorist - and examine the effects of corporate globalization on local culture.

``But it's not political,'' Meirelles says. ``It's more philosophical. 'What is our life for?' 'What are we doing with our lives while we're here?' We assume that this is the final version of what civilization can be, what we see in the West. Is that true? And does this mean happiness?''

Glenn Whipp, [phone]

glenn.whipp(at)dailynews.com

Spy movies we have loved - or not

That the three finest John le Carre adaptations to this point have been TV miniseries - ``Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy,'' ``Smiley's People'' and ``A Perfect Spy'' - speaks both to the challenges of adapting the novelist's work as well as the ways that Hollywood has botched the job over the years.

A look at le Carre's spy movies and whether we loathed or loved them:

THE SPY WHO CAME IN FROM THE COLD (1965)

On the one hand ...: Gritty look at dirty, dehumanizing work of being a spy. One of Richard Burton's great performances.

On the other ...: Relentlessly grim view of humanity might drive you to drink as much as Burton did.

Verdict: The best le Carre movie.

THE DEADLY AFFAIR (1966, based on the novel ``Call for the Dead'')

On the one hand ...:Another convincingly gloomy melodrama about a spy (the superb James Mason) caught in a game he can't control.

On the other ...: Stoicism does not translate into suspense.

Verdict: Best for Mason completists.

THE LOOKING GLASS WAR (1969)

On the one hand ...:Fine work from a young(er) Anthony Hopkins.

On the other ...: Hopkins only has a small part. Christopher Jones is the lead.

Verdict: Slow, unconvincing Cold War drama.

THE LITTLE DRUMMER GIRL (1984)

On the one hand ...: Le Carre's complex material is easily understood ...

On the other ...: to the point of silly simplicity. Too much plot, too little characterization. Spectacle of watching Diane Keaton being swallowed whole.

Verdict: Big, bad bore.

THE RUSSIA HOUSE (1990)

On the one hand ...: Sean Connery and Michelle Pfeiffer make a surprising match in this affecting love story.

On the other ...: Director Fred Schepisi falls, as others have before him, struggling to turn le Carre's internal worlds into films that can sustain dramatic interest. Another factor: Tom Stoppard + John le Carre = Too many words.

Verdict: Close, but nyet.

THE TAILOR OF PANAMA (2001)

On the one hand ...: Pierce Brosnan plays a British agent who doesn't have to deliver cringe-worthy puns.

On the other ...: Geoffrey Rush steals the show right out from under him as the title character.

Verdict: Director John Boorman delivers a cerebral black comedy even if the film's thriller elements falls flat.

- G.W.

CAPTION(S):

6 photos, box

Photo:

(1 -- cover -- color) INTO AFRICA

`The Constant Gardener' uses a love story to dig into horrors plaguing the continent

(2) Rachel Weisz and Ralph Fiennes

(3) ``It could have been a more thrillerlike film, or it could have been a political drama with more information. But the strongest element was the love story,'' says director Fernando Meirelles.

(4) no caption (Richard Burton)

(5) no caption (Sean Connery)

(6) no caption (Pierce Brosnan)

Box:

Spy movies we had loved - or not (see text)