by MATTHEW HAYS

It's a classic tale, one told over and over again. Hot international director delivers wicked debut feature, only to be bought up by a Hollywood studio and squeezed through the system. The result? Their second feature feels like Kraft Dinner.

Fernando Meirelles, of course, is the director behind City of God, arguably one of the very best films of the past five years. Audaciously stylish, brutally honest, the film won universal praise and Oscar nods. Now Meirelles is working from the novel by John le Carre, The Constant Gardener, a taut thriller in which a British diplomat (the solid-as-always Ralph Fiennes) appointed to Kenya takes along his wife (Rachel Weisz), a headstrong activist who is horrified to learn of the malfeasance of various pharmaceutical companies.

Weisz pays for her curiosity (and social conscience) with her life, in a mysterious car accident. Fiennes, naturally, cannot stand the loss of his beloved, and begins his own detective work, trying desperately to uncover why she was so dangerous to British corporate interests.

The Constant Gardener (wish they could have lost that title - sounds like a cheeseball house-and-garden show on the Life Channel) has its moments. Performances are good, with the obligatory corporate/government-conspiracy types looking suitably evil. But one does get the sinking feeling, as the film rolls along, that the superbly stylish, awesomely cool Meirelles was a square peg being squeezed into a round hole while making this movie.

Much of it is good: there's a scene where Fiennes takes a whupping that's as emotionally manipulative as it's intended to be. (Go get revenge, Ralph!) There's a car chase. There are scheming sleazebags who keep arguing that African life simply isn't that valuable.

But for any strengths the film may have, I grew weary of this one after about 20 minutes. As laudable as it is for mainstream movies to be pointing to corporate nastiness and third-world exploitation, The Secret Gardener remains a wait-for-the-DVD movie.

The Constant Gardener opens Friday, Aug. 26

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