Hey, everyone. ”Moriarty” here.

Here’s why I’m hoping to start doing more festival coverage personally later this year... because it gives you a chance to see so many things that you might otherwise never give that chance. I love the overload that starts to happen about four days into a festival. That’s when I find myself really starting to enjoy the entire experience and not worrying about seeing this title or that one in particular.

I had never heard of this, and now, thanks to Mastidon, it’s on my radar. Check out his review:

GARDENS OF THE NIGHT
Written & Directed by Damian Harris
Starring: Gillian Jacobs, Evan Ross, Ryan Simpkins, Jermani Scooter Smith, Kevin Zegers, Jeremy Sisto, Harold Perrineau, John Malkovich, and Tom Arnold
Release Dates: None set yet!
4 1/2 Stars out of 5

***BEWARE OF SPOILERS as impossible to write a review for this film without them****

Wow. Where to begin? This movie will become the definitive movie for child protection. Emotional doesn't even begin to cover it. I walked out of the theater saying if this film does not win an Oscar next year, Hollywood needs to be shot. And that Oscar, believe it or not, needs to go to Tom Arnold. Yes, you read that correctly - Tom Arnold. Simply the definitive performance of his career. He is SPECTACULAR.

***MAJOR SPOILER Zone****
Pulling from his own past as a sexually abused child, Tom plays the role of Alex. We meet Alex as he searching among the bushes of a house calling for his dog Trixie. Alex approaches a beautiful 7 year old blonde girl named Leslie (Ryan Simpkins) and asks Leslie for his help to find Trixie which she agrees to. All along the search, Alex pulls information from her about her life and family. He offers her a ride to school because she is late. She agrees. On the drive we meet Alex's friend Frank (Kevin Zegers) who also helps to pull key information from Leslie such as the name of her father and where he works. They drop her off at school only to return for her trip home where they convince Leslie that something has happened to her parents and she must go with them now.

The film follows Leslie and tells everything from her point of view. When she arrives at Alex's house, it appears he gets a phone call from her father. From what Alex says, it seems an emergency happened and that her father wants her to stay with him a little while until he can come get her. He puts her in a bedroom with Donnie (Jermaine Scooter Smith) and locks the door. The first night after being drugged, Alex takes her out of the bedroom then takes photos of her presumably naked.

Slowly Alex goes about breaking Leslie. When she asks to call her father, he says no problem and gives her what he says is his cell phone number. For hours she tries him in vein. Eventually we are shown a payphone ringing in a public place. At bath time, Alex puts Leslie naked in a bath together with Donne. When Leslie is scared, he makes fun of her asking whether she is shy. Frank is always working on Leslie in the background. Adding comments like, "the truth is your parents don't really want you, but Alex doesn't want to tell you." Eventually, Alex takes Leslie to stay with Orlando (Harold Perrineau). As soon as she is left alone with Orlando, he tells her about wanting to touch and feel her. When he goes to touch her, she screams out for Alex who bursts in and apparently shoots and kills Orlando. He makes her promise together with Frank that they will tell no one about the murder. She is broken and trusts him completely.

With Leslie broken, Alex has sex with her. The original script had a much more explicit version but Tom Arnold would have nothing to do with it - rightly so. You see Tom's hands go under the water in the bathtub then the next thing you see is Leslie lying on the bed crying. Alex tells her, "You are like a butterfly changing from a caterpillar. Don't you think it hurts the caterpillar when it does the change?" Next we see Alex meeting Jimmy (Jeremy Sisto). Jimmy opens a book full of photos with kids in it. All apparently for sale for a night. He talks about the possibility to even fly Leslie to different customers which Alex disagrees with and says he only wants local customers. Next we see Leslie in the backseat of Jimmy's car. He tells her that he will only give her to the best customers and that she is going to see a judge.

Leslie and Donnie have become very close like brother and sister. Playing together, depending on each other, and even sleeping in the same bed. On a trip to the store for ice cream, the store clerk recognizes Leslie from a milk carton in her shop and calls the police. Back at the house, Alex grabs both kids and puts tape over their mouths. Together with Frank, they run out the back and get away. The film does a great job at showing that Alex and Frank are always on edge and always moving to stay ahead of the police.

Fast forward 10 years. Leslie and Donnie are cuddled together sleeping on the beach. Both are street prostitutes selling themselves any way possible to survive. Leslie is approached to recruit a young girl from the nearby shelter. At first she rejects it but then eventually gives into the need for cash and abandons her ties to Donnie. When asked by the shelter worker (John Malkovich) about her parents, she says they died when she was 7. She also says she has a brother but doesn't know where he is. She expertly recruits the girl. In the middle of the night, she realizes that she has made a mistake and grabs the girl and takes her back to the shelter. There, the shelter worker proves to her that her family is alive and really has been looking for her for years.

Leslie is reunited with her parents. They tell her that she has a brother and sister who she eventually meets. She can't fit in and flees the house after they are all asleep. This is no longer her world. She goes off to try and find Donnie to survive the world together as he is now her family.

The film closes with actual statistics about kids on the streets. Today there are over 300,000 with half of them having been sexually abused.

**END MAJOR SPOILERS****

Even just writing about the story and thinking about it again makes me sad. The reality is this is the way it is. Never before has this subject been so graphically portrayed in a movie. It details everything out of a child molester / kidnappers playbook. It also details the effect on the child themselves, passing on what they learn and know.

Extensive research went into the script with Damian Harris working on the project for over 17 years and it shows. It had been green-lighted and cancelled several times for various reasons and was a breath away from being cancelled again. No actor would take the part of Alex even up to the weekend before shooting was scheduled to begin. They asked Tom several times to do it. Eventually his agent said to him that he had to. He asked his agent, "Would you recommend any of your clients take this part? " His agent responded with, "No, but I would recommend my friend to." It sealed the deal. Tom is just plain scary. You have no problem believing him in this role whatsoever. And for that he deserves all of the respect and admiration possible as something like this could simply ruin his career. He took a big chance by agreeing to do this role, and it worked.

How emotional is this movie? Well, as a guideline I can tell you that the reporter for Al-Jazeera sitting next to me was crying and wiping the tears from her eyes as the film ended. It will break your heart. It is a must see for any parent. I can only hope it will do for child abduction and abuse what PHILADELPHIA did for AIDS awareness.

Ciao,

-Mastidon