Fireflies in the Garden (2008)

Truly Dreadful Film

Don't listen to the negative reviews

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.

Going into this drama I wasn't quite so sure what to expect from the simple plot explanation. Once the film's narrative kicked into high gear I was sucked in and invested in what really amounts to a character study of its leading players and its various subjects ranging from abuse, grief and family. Boasting a talented A-list cast, the drama tells the story of the Taylor family gathering for what was to be a joyful celebration of the family matriarch graduating from college when a terrible accident forces the family to confront traumatic events of their past; in particular son Michael and his rocky relationship with his controlling father.The performances in the film are dynamic especially from Ryan Reynolds as Michael Taylor, the son who has many demons inside him due to his troubled relationship with his English professor father, and Willem Dafoe playing Reynolds's father Charles Taylor, a controlling perfectionist who wants nothing less from his reserved, soft-spoken son. The actors display a tenuous chemistry as their characters butt heads throughout the story in confronting their painful past and handling the grief of losing a beloved family member. The supporting cast is equally gripping from Emily Watson as Jane, aunt to Michael and the female character meant to keep peace following the film's tragedy, to the child actors who are put in the middle of the long-simmering tensions between Ryan Reynolds' Michael and Willem Dafoe's Charlie, and in a subdued performance is Julia Roberts as the family matriarch (seen mostly in flashbacks), the put-upon wife of Charlie who finds herself unhappy in her life but willing to stay cordial for her children's sake. The film benefits well from its use of flashback sequences as it fills the gaps on the Taylor family dynamic and how they ended up in such precarious positions. The movie opens on a memory of young Michael as he was left on the roadside by his upset father and we are already privy to how an adult Michael still has lingering problems with resolving his past. The present- day scenes in which the majority of the film takes place deals with the aftermath of an accident and its effects on the Taylor family makes for even more compelling drama as all the film's players are forced to confront life without the family leader and to come to terms with their inner turmoils. However closure is still kept at bay for some characters by the film's final scene as we are left to wonder what would have happened had some of the others known what was kept hidden from them but known to the viewer.

'Fireflies in the Garden' reveals how much film producers despise their writers, directors, actors and audience. A movie which ran for 122 minutes in its original cut, has been chopped down to 89 minutes for its DVD release. The story is a fairly complicated family drama about past abuse, secrets and betrayals, so even the most attentive viewer will be watching with furrowed brows as the missing action frequently makes the characters' behavior incomprehensible.The film has some decent performances from an outstanding cast, but their talents are wasted since the fragmented plot produces only confusion and frustration. Few screenplays can survive losing 25% of their material, and it's pointless to write a real review when the narrative arc of this abbreviated version makes so little sense. There are numerous instance where issues are raised, but never followed up, leading to a conclusion which is an anti-climactic farce due to all the excisions and omissions.

Charles Taylor (Willem Dafoe) is a domineering abusive father to Michael and constantly fighting with his wife Lisa (Julia Roberts). As an adult, Michael (Ryan Reynolds) is a successful romance novel writer. He's coming home to see his mother graduate with his sister Ryne (Shannon Lucio). He's still bitter at his ex-wife Kelly Hanson (Carrie-Anne Moss). Lisa has a younger sister Jane (Hayden Panettiere/Emily Watson). As Charles and Lisa drive to her graduation from college, they get into an accident killing Lisa. This movie flashes back a lot to Michael as a young boy when Jane comes to live with them.The flashbacks are handled poorly. There are too many of them and it's a confusing mess to get a handle on who's who in all of this. It doesn't help that Emily Watson is nothing like Hayden Panettiere. I don't mean their looks. They don't have the same personality. It needs to settle down on all the main characters before they do extensive flashbacks. It all ends up in a ball of chaos.The good part is Willem Dafoe. He has the power of presence. He sells his domineering personality. Ryan Reynolds holds his own. There are some good actors in this movie. There is a compelling dysfunctional family drama, but writer/director Dennis Lee can't quite put it all together. With the caliber of actors, this should have made a much better movie.

"Fireflies in the Garden" is one of those rare movies where a stellar cast and script based on a Robert Frost poem (!) could not get itself a release. Four years later, it got a straight-to-DVD release. And for good reason, it's really bad. It's a dysfunctional family drama where the characters are messed up from beginning to middle to end. There is no relief, comedy or otherwise, from the dysfunction.It starts with the guise that perhaps it's not dysfunctional from the very beginning, but no, it is. I made the mistake of reading the back of the DVD case, where I was informed that the Taylors are the very picture of a happy and successful American family. I wonder what constitutes a successful family: Is it the father emotionally and physically abusing his son? Or the husband emotionally and physically abusing his wife? Or the inappropriate relationship between aunt and nephew? Because all of that was conveyed to us in the first two scenes. Not from the very first minute did I confuse this family as a happy and successful one.The film also implies that the family wants to get out from their past and start afresh. Whether they want to or not, that's not going to happen because they don't even know what a happy and successful family looks like let alone how to be one.The now grown up son, Michael (Ryan Reynolds) has returned home along with his sister and aunt and father (Willem Dafoe). Michael is a writer because it's the classic profession to be able to rid yourself of past demons. I was expecting a sort of mystery to develop as the film certainly did imply that each character was hiding something. Of course they were hiding things – repressed emotions. Which doesn't build to a mystery but melodrama.The title refers to the Frost poem but also one of their childhood activities. Along with everyone I know, on warm summer evenings when the fireflies would be out in their brilliant glory, we would catch them in jars, keep them in our bedrooms, trying to savour the magic of the night. But not the Taylor kids. On warm summer evenings when the glowing fireflies were out, they would go and kill them. Any sympathy was instantly lost, never to be regained.