THE HANGING GARDEN
a review by Justin Siegel
© Justin Siegel / Pigman Productions
*** ½ (out of a possible four)
Starring: Chris Leavins, Kerry Fox, Peter McNeill, Sarah Polley Written and Directed by: Thom Fitzgerald Release Date: 11/14/97 (Saskatoon, Sask.) / Early 1998 (U.S.) Saskatchewan Classification: 14A (Language, domestic violence, sexuality) Running Length: 1:34
I don't think I have ever seen a movie with more flaws that I enjoyed more thouroughly than THE HANGING GARDEN. For all its sloppy direction, lapses in smart dialogue, amateurish acting and glaring missteps, I must say I was truly taken with this powerful and moving film. Canadian director Thom Fitzgerald has crafted a debut film so eloquently, that I'm sure his is a name Americans will know as well as Atom Egoyan's by the next millenium.
The hanging garden of the film's title, is a small flower-garden in the backyard of a middle-class Nova Scotia family's acreage, where the abusive, alcoholic father Whiskey Mac (Peter McNeill) teaches his children the names and blooming seasons of his favorite flowers. Mac, it is obvious, cares more for his garden than for his children. It is refered to as the "hanging" garden because Mac's overweight, homosexual teenage son Sweet William hanged himself there after losing his virginity to a prostitute.
The film opens, of course, ten years after this fact, when Sweet William (Chris Leavins of Saskatoon - it's nice to see a local boy do good for himself) returns to the family house for his sister Rosemary's (Kerry Fox) wedding. And right now you're thinking, But isn't Sweet William dead? Well, yes, as a matter of fact... or is he? His bloated teenage body still swings from a tree in the backyard, and his five-year-old self dances through quite a few of the film's scenes, as well. THE HANGING GARDEN is not about making sense or answering questions, but about coming to terms with, and (literally) burying the past.
Rosemary (played as a teenager by the Martha Plimpton-ish Sarah Polley, also wowing 'em in yet another Canadian masterpiece, THE SWEET HEREAFTER, opening Stateside in four days) is a foul-mouthed, chainsmoking, yet loving sister to Sweet William, always the most supportive of the family. The fact that she's marrying the very man that William shared his first homosexual experience with only complicates matters, and the flirtatious bridegroom's passes at Sweet William are making him rather uncomfortable. The way the film weaves through flashbacks and present-day is reminiscant of THE SWEET HEREAFTER, yet neither the film, nor the direction, is up to par with Egoyan's film.
The film, however brilliant, has tonnes of obvious flaws. The fact that the film's first and second acts have titles, yet the third does not, is one that Fitzgerald should've picked up on, as well as the unresolved disapperance of Sweet William's mother. The character of Violet (notice the flower-related names here?) is poorly realized as well as poorly defined, and Whiskey Mac's mother and sister are never given a chance to make any impressions on the viewer.
I hgighly recommend you see THE HANGING GARDEN as soon as it inches its way to American art-houses, which should be sometime in early 1998. It and THE SWEET HEREAFTER would make an excellent double-bill, and it proves that, yes, you _can_ go home again - even ten years after your death.
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