Hey, everyone. ”Moriarty” here.

And no, it’s not a mistake. He really did review two films today, both with GARDEN in the title. One he loved. The other... welllllll...

FIREFLIES IN THE GARDEN
Written & Directed by Dennis Lee
Starring: Willem Dafoe, Julia Roberts, Ryan Reynolds, Emily Watson, and Hayden Panettiere
Release Info: US & UK, no date set yet. Germany April 24th.
2 1/2 Stars out of 5

A Tale of Two Gardens

One was the best of movies, one was the worst of movies.
FIREFLIES IN THE GARDEN and GARDENS OF THE NIGHT opened within hours of each other here in Berlin. The press junkets were even back to back. It was very hard to keep the films straight in my mind until I saw them. My friends say I'm a pessimist so this review will focus on the bad one. The good one to follow soon.

First let me begin by saying I really wanted to love this movie. A writer / director's first film and he gets an A list cast with a script based on his own experiences growing up. Sounds very promising especially to all of us starving writers out there who would kill to have such a cast. Unfortunately, it reminded me of a 2 hour episode of OCTOBER ROAD. Hey, I like OCTOBER ROAD as mindless TV to fill the time. But with Julia Roberts and Willem Dafoe as the parents? What a waste. The acting in this film is great. Exactly what you would expect from such a cast - high quality from Willem down to Hayden. What's bad is the script. Its confusing and predictable and makes it feel like a TV movie.

***SPOILERS****

The concept, Michael Waechter (Ryan Reynolds) a well known novelist who has moved away and is now returning home for a family event. His mom Lisa (Julia Roberts) dies in a car crash on the way to that event due to the careless driving of his father Charlie (Willem Dafoe). The film begins with that and follows the events that take place as a result. The film opens with Michael's arrival by plane where the flight attendant asks for his autograph on his latest novel. We then see him put his wedding ring back onto his finger.

The first flashback is set in the 80s with Michael in the back seat of the family car being yelled at by Charlie for losing his glasses. Lisa tries to defend him and the situation explodes into family angst. It ends with Charlie pulling the car over, Michael getting out and walking home at which point he pulls out his glasses from his pocket. During the course of this film we see several other flashback examples of Michael and Charlie butting heads. In another flashback we meet Jane (Hayden Panettiere) who is Lisa's much younger sister. She moves in with them for some unknown reason. There is an immediate sexual tension between Michael and Jane. There is even a scene with Jane in her underwear opening the door to talk to Michael with Michael staring at her breasts. By far the best visuals in the film for any Heroes fan.
The film continues with endless flashbacks of how Michael and Charlie really are at each other. It is just repetitive and is clear that Charlie, who is always screaming in the flashbacks, doesn't like his son very much.

In the present, Michael tries to patch things up with his father but it's clear it's not possible. He then gets to know Jane's family and spends time with his cousins who are around 12 years old and remind him of himself at that age. Carrie-Anne Moss shows up as Michael's estranged wife. The have loud and crazy sex during the eulogy for his mother to the embarrassment of Charlie. There is also a lot of family tension around Michael's new book called "Fireflies In The Garden" which details his life. The older Jane (Emily Watson) begs him not to publish it as it will reveal all of their family secrets implying that they had sex when they were younger. In the end he agrees and burns the book because his father has become a bit more remorseful and of learning of an affair his mother had from which she was planning to get a divorce. At the end, he says good-bye to the family and that he will be visiting much more often. What a waste.


***END SPOILERS****

Dennis Lee's vision for this film was that you get to see portions of a family's life with many questions left open and many secrets revealed over a few days. The end result is just a mess with some great performances off of a very bad script. Julia Roberts is in the first 20 minutes or so, then disappears until a couple of scenes late in the film. In all, maybe she is in 10% of the film. Why she took this part is anybody's guess as she is Julia Roberts after all and can write her own ticket. It reminded me of how Susan Sarandon was wasted in THE VALLEY OF ELAH -- just not quite as bad.

An informal survey from the other press folks here had the unified result that this is a film that was just a waste and belongs on TV. You know that means - it will do $50 million its first weekend. It does have Julia Roberts after all if only for 20 minutes. Spend your hard earned cash elsewhere unless you are just dying to see Hayden half naked.

Ciao for now,

-Mastidon