DVDs include 'Gardener'

An engrossing political thriller based on a John le Carre novel, which was one of last year's better films, leads off this collection of newly released DVDs, which also includes three reissues.

• "The Constant Gardener" (Focus/Universal, 2005; R for violence, sex, nudity, language; $29.98). A mild-mannered low-level British diplomat (Ralph Fiennes) turns something of a blind eye to the political activism of his wife (Rachel Weisz), until she disappears while investigating a major pharmaceutical company in Kenya. When she's discovered dead, he picks up the trail himself and learns more than he ever wanted to know.

Fiennes and Weisz are great and have real chemistry together, and the supporting cast includes the excellent character actors Bill Nighy and Pete Postlethwaite. A weaker link is Danny Huston, who always seems to me to be acting in a broad melodrama.

The film's structure is smart, with fine use of flashbacks to help with the building sense of dread, and the African landscape is nicely photographed.

Extras: Separate widescreen and full-frame editions, deleted/extended scenes, making-of featurettes, language options (English, French), subtitle options (English, Spanish, French), chapters.

• "Dead Poets Society: Special Edition" (Touchstone, 1989, PG, $19.99). Today, Robin Williams playing a sensitive, serious character is not unique. But in 1989, Williams was known simply as a manic comic, and it wasn't until his turn in this film, sensitively directed by Peter Weir ("Witness," "Fearless"), that Williams demonstrated to a wide audience another side to his talent.

Williams plays a poetry teacher in a strict, harsh New England boys school, circa 1959, but his students are the film's central focus, and he has quite an impact as he encourages them to "seize the day" (especially those played by Robert Sean Leonard and Ethan Hawk, though all the characters are well-drawn). Watch for Lara Flynn Boyle (TV's "The Practice") and Kurtwood Smith ("That '70s Show").

Extras: Widescreen, audio commentary (Weir, cinematographer John Seale, writer Tom Schulman), making-of featurettes, alternate takes, trailers, language options (English, French), chapters.