The Hanging Garden

The Hanging Garden

The Hanging garden is one of those fine metaphors about familial existence, self explanation, and coping with a certain kind of sexuality in a community which will have none of it. It's central character, a man who returns home after years away, seems out of place in such a crude and rugged environment as the East Coast. He must, in a certain kind of mindset, face what he was, and try to bury that past for good. His struggle, one of growing to realize what has happened and how he has changed, leads him on a bizarre odyssey of acceptance and growth. The rest of his family may seem somewhat rude and unkempt, but keep in mind that people are pretty much this way in the Martimes at any right. A fine film, especially by Canadian standards.

I think what I disliked the most about this film was simply the fact that I didn't like ANYBODY in it...not really. The father is a bully and a drunk. The mother is ineffectual, and doesn't even stand up for her children when they are being badly treated or even hit by her husband.she spends her time pursing her lips or waving her arms in frustration. The sister is vulgar as hell and is so completely dislikable in her opening wedding preparations scenes that it is difficult to warm to her later, although she ALMOST managed to break through my reserve for her in a few later scenes, mainly when she is being loving and protective of her older brother. The grandmother seems to be played on two notes only - sweetly senile or bossily mean, convulsed with religious intolerance. The youngest sister/daughter is just a rude, uncontrollable brat. And "Sweet William" is ...well, so sweet that he seems to more or less forgive everyone and never get really mad at any of what is going on around him. The only person in the entire film that I could sort of warm to was Fletcher - who is luckily not a part of this family and actually seems human and decent, if a bit selfish. Now, I have seen dysfunctional families before, on and off screen - but here there is no indication that anyone is capable of simply being "normal" for even two minutes. Except for William, every one of them is murderously mean, nasty, muck-mouthed, intense and twitchy in all situations. ALL THE TIME! In the end, they come across as cardboard cut-outs rather than real people, every one of them (except William and Fletcher) overacting like crazy. There were a few moments in the film that were touching and/or calm, but they were few and far between. In real life I would try and get away from these people as fast as I could. In other words, watching this film is an exercise in masochism. Thanks, but no thanks. Ten times better -if you are into Canadian film - is C.R.A.Z.Y... a film with real people, real performances, humour and other emotions besides the "dramatic" ones... and a much surer director's hand. It will make up for the ennui and gruesomeness of The Hanging Garden.

Sweet William (Chris Leavins) returns to his family's house after being gone for 10 years. He came at the request of his sister (Kerry Fox) who is getting married. He left home because he was gay and couldn't deal with his family's HEAVY dysfunction. While back home he starts to flashback to his childhood...and begins to realize some unpleasant things about himself and his family. This is basically yet another movie about a dysfunctional family...but this is a very good one. It's well-done (on next to no budget) and has some beautiful (if obvious) symbolism using flowers and nature. The story also took some unexpected turns I didn't see coming. Also the gay themes are handled very well and explicitly--that may bother some people. The acting is superb all the way through--Leavins and Fox are just incredible. And it DOES have a happy ending which I didn't really believe for one second--but it still works. My only complaints--there's virtual non-stop swearing through the movie, and can we have just ONE movie about a dysfunctional family that DOESN'T have incest? Also look for a young Sarah Polley in a small role. I give it an 8.

I recently saw this again having first seen it in the theater on its release and been spellbound by it. Thom Fitzgerald is both the writer and director of an exploration into a family's dysfunction and disintegration amid their getting together for the wedding of the daughter. The film shows the family in both the present and the past and centres around the newly returned son, Sweet William, the father, Whiskey Mac and his wife, Iris, and their relationship to their three children. The father is a nursery man/gardener and the segments of the movie are titled with the names of flowers. As are the children of the family. In the past, Sweet William, an unhappy overweight boy is conflicted by his latent homosexuality. He develops a relationship with his friend Fletcher. When they are caught making love, the family completely falls apart. The message of the film revolves around the theme of family secrets and how attempts to bury or ignore them serves only as a temporary cover-up. They will out. Peter MacMeill, Kerry Fox, Chris Leavins, Troy Veinoitte, Seana McKenna and Sarah Polley give able, believable performances. Again, it is one of those under-appreciated Canadian gems that have not been brought to a wider audience. And deserve to be. And it has one of the most surprising, uplifting endings! 8 out of 10. Bravos to all involved.

I just caught this movie on cable and loved it immediately. Troy Veinotte did a fabulous job, he broke my heart in that role. I wish he'd do more work, or at least show up here and there. I can't seem to locate any interviews he's done, and Hanging Garden seems to be his only role to date. We want more Troy! I think that boy is just flat out adorable. The entire movie is now one of my all time favorites. I'll be watching this at least once every six months or so. I understand that it was a very difficult role for Troy to tackle, but I'm beyond appreciative of the work he did there. Someone needs to nudge him to do more projects.

This film is about a man coming back to his dysfunctional home after he left suddenly 10 years ago. Right from the beginning, the family is already shown to be dysfunctional and unhappy. The initial wedding scene is unromantic, as it is clear that Rosemary did not want to marry. The grandmother has troubling dementia symptoms, and the father is alcoholic. It exposes a lot of sad and turbulent things that can happen: father's alcoholism, battered mother unable to stand up for herself, parents not being able to accept the son's sexuality, the haunting process of dementia and the destructive power of unresolved grief. A powerful scene is when William challenges his mother why she has not left her husband. "How will I pay my bills" she says. It's a sad fact, but it is happening to a lot of people right now. The longer I stayed watching "The Hanging Garden", the more fascinating it became. "The Hanging Garden" has an engaging and complicated plot which is open to interpretation. The ending is unexpected and powerful. It is a film to ponder on, not a film for a popcorn night.

What is up with this film? So he is hanging in the garden, but is he dead or what? He tried to kill himself, because of being gay or dysfunctional, which one? Or did his dysfunction die when he left? Yikes I am so haunted by this movie and the performance of the young actor, that played him as a teen, was remarkable. I have not seen many movies from Canada and this was really good albeit confusing to me!! Did that make sense? Part of the movie seemed cut-up--I saw it on Cinemax but I guess they could have shown an edited version.It was weird when Fletcher married the sister, is that because he could not have Willie? And the little girl was the daughter of Willie and the prostitute? Wow, can you imagine that happening to a kid, he didn't want to go to her, in the first place. The grandmother's portrayal was really interesting. Was she really crazy or just like that because of the heavy duty dysfunction, in the house, for all those years?

Baffling 'dysfunctional family' drama from Canada darts around in time yet fails to give us much to go on. Newly-skinny young man returns to his parents' home after a ten-year absence to attend his sister's wedding (to a man he has always harbored a crush on); relationships in the household are sketchy, however, as the man remembers his childhood as an overweight kid who once attempted suicide (and was apparently rescued). Thom Fitzgerald wrote and directed the picture with a thudding hand (and a barbed tongue, which I'm not sure is supposed to be funny). His touches of surreality are interesting, and there's always a promise here of the scenario becoming much more provocative, but too many questions are left unanswered. As for the "hanging garden" of the title: it's a cheat, with limbs kicking and flowers dying in stop-motion. Fitzgerald wants to prod the audience in a certain direction, but he doesn't have enough talent as a writer (nor the eye of a perceptive filmmaker) to achieve satisfaction on any level. *1/2 from ****