Chicago Sun-Times by Roger Ebert

Like "City of God," it feels organically rooted. Like many Le Carre stories, it begins with grief and proceeds with sadness toward horror. Its closing scenes are as cynical about international politics and commerce as I can imagine. I would like to believe they are an exaggeration, but I fear they are not. This is one of the year's best films.

USA Today by Claudia Puig

A masterwork of suspense, romance and political intrigue.

Baltimore Sun by Michael Sragow

A thriller from the inside out, a romance from the outside in: that's the double-edged brilliance of The Constant Gardener.

Philadelphia Inquirer by Steven Rea

Simply the best adaptation of any John le Carré thriller to make it to the screen.

San Francisco Chronicle by Mick LaSalle

It's a love story only in passing. And yet the love story is what lingers in the mind and gives energy and meaning to everything that happens on-screen.

Chicago Tribune by Robert K. Elder

A sweaty, vital masterpiece that's always one step ahead of its audience.

Entertainment Weekly by Lisa Schwarzbaum

The movie is smart, serious, and adult about something that matters, but not at the expense of a kind of awful, sensual revelry as le Carré's capacious plot hurtles to its big finish.

Portland Oregonian by Shawn Levy

Reigns as the most assured, provocative film so far this year.

Christian Science Monitor by Peter Rainer

Essentially two movies for the price of one. But those halves add up to more than most movies right now.

New York Magazine (Vulture) by Ken Tucker

Ralph Fiennes gives one of the year's subtlest, yet most exciting, screen performances.

Film Threat

The film is able to be a thriller, a political statement and a haunting romance all at once.

Film Threat by Greg Bellavia

The film is able to be a thriller, a political statement and a haunting romance all at once.

Rolling Stone by Peter Travers

Director Fernando Meirelles and screenwriter Jeffrey Caine put a human face on John le Carre's novel of sex, lies and dirty politics in modern Africa. Prepare for a thrilling ride.

L.A. Weekly by Ella Taylor

A smart, beautiful piece of storytelling, attentive to Le Carré's broad intent, while boldly taking a knife to his more egregious longueurs.

Variety by Todd McCarthy

Succeeds in capturing the book's essential themes and concerns, albeit in a hectic style that could not be more antithetical to that of the literary master of international intrigue.

The Hollywood Reporter by Kirk Honeycutt

His (Fernando Meirelles) impressionistic, guerilla style of filmmaking works surprisingly well in capturing the hypnotic urgency of le Carre's fiction. And his viewpoint is less British and more Third World.

ReelViews by James Berardinelli

Talky and intelligent, and never takes the cheap way out. It's also something of a downer.

Premiere by Glenn Kenny

With almost palpable anger, Meirelles hammers home the point that crushing poverty is only one problem for Africa that the West needs to do something about.

The New Yorker by Anthony Lane

Think about it a day later, though, and its hectic swoop from romance to thriller to campaign manifesto leaves oddly little afterglow. The gardener is the only constant here; so much else burns up and blows away.