Fireflies in the Garden: Review By Fallenlords

When a family is torn apart by tragedy it starts to look at itself in an attempt for better understanding. Michael Waechter (Ryan Reynolds) and his father Charles Waechter (Willem Defoe) have a tempestuous relationship at best. Others within Michael's family, his mother Lisa Waechter (Julia Roberts) and his aunt Jane Lawrence (Emily Watson) have always tried to compensate for this strained relationship in the past. But this tragedy enlightens both father and son in different ways.

The plot is pretty hard to explain without giving too much away. It involves current events and past events, so is told through a series of flashbacks which then switch back to present. It is done reasonably well, unfolding the story a little at a time - but there do appear to be some huge gaps. When Jane is talking to Michael about his latest book, she sounds as though a family secret is going to be revealed within the book. This never really comes to fruition unless the secret is the way the father treated Michael. But it doesn't seem to be that and I don't see what impact that would have on the character of Jane overall, in other words something seemed missing. Perhaps I should have twigged something was up with this, with a European release coming ahead of an American release. It did seem a bit odd with such a star studded cast I must admit.

I am left not quite knowing what to make of the film overall, to an extent it was somewhat pointless. Yes it shows the emotional roller coaster that people go through when a tragedy strikes. It shows relationships and all the complications that go with them. It shows family as a unit, but also as individuals. It shows a huge array of emotions but at the end we don't really know why.

Personally I enjoyed it for one reason, Ryan Reynolds. I thought he was superb in this film both in his acting and in his character. Considering the emotional depth of the film, it is always his character that lightens the mood. The relationship between Michael and his father takes a lot of understanding, I don't really know if I understand it now. It is conflicting at best and totally off the scale in parts. One thing I can't fathom is whether or not you are purposefully left to draw your own conclusions about how this ends.

There are some good performances by Willem Defoe, Julia Roberts, Emily Watson and Carrie-Anne Moss. Ioan Gruffudd (Fantastic Four) pops up as well, although with the limited amount of scenes I wonder if there is more of a subplot going on - that perhaps found its way to the cutting room floor. Both his lack of screen time, plus the mention of a family secret make me wonder if this film was meant to be something else. It didn't quite work, so it was re-cut to make the most of what they had - by dropping some large chunks of plot. It comes across a little that way to me, though I may be wrong.

Directed and written by Dennis Lee I don't know if this in some way was to suppose to be an auto-biographical account. There does seem more to the spirit of the film than just the story. I kind of sensed there was a point to put over; I just don’t know what that was overall - again I may be wrong.

The directing was fine but once again I would have to pull him up on plot being the writer. I am not always sure it works out when the writer is the director. Some times I think it takes a disconnected eye to get the most out of a story. Writer/Director's are sometimes just too close to the story to get the best from it.

Typically this is not my sort of film; I am not a huge fan of drama as a whole. So it did something right to keep me watching. Not sure I can put my finger on exactly what and in hindsight I still don't really understand what it was all about. But I do feel compensated in a small way by the performance of Ryan Reynolds, which I did feel was a quite special.

Probably if you really like drama then this will appeal, to an extent it reminded me more of a Play. But being a film it had the added advantage of flashback moments which allowed the story to unfold, piece by piece. This film just lacked something but I am not really sure what!

Plot holes aside, this is a reasonable drama that might appeal to some. I don't think it will be for everyone and there might be a number of factors involved as to whether or not you find it enjoyable.