FIREFLIES IN THE GARDEN
US, 2008, 98 minutes, Colour.
Ryan Reynolds, Willem Dafoe, Emily Watson, Carrie Ann Moss, Julia Roberts, Johann Gruffudd, Hayden Panettiere, Shannon Lucio, Cayden Boyd, George Newbern, Chase Ellison.
Directed by Dennis Eldon Lee.
The advertising tagline for this film is: a family has to break apart before it comes together. This is a smart saying but not entirely accurate for this hard-edged American dysfunctional family drama.
Told in flashbacks (or flashforwards from the starting point), it begins with a young boy, Michael (Cayden Boyd) and centres on him as an adult (Ryan Reynolds). Typically, perhaps, or typically enough, the opening scene sets the tone quite powerfully: the awkward boy with the thick glasses (deliberately not using them), his domineering and exacting father complaining about him and ridiculing him, the mother supportive but acquiescent. The boy is ousted from the family car into a cornfield in the rain and has to walk home. How will this family turn out, especially as the mother is pregnant and her younger sister comes to spend the summer with them?
There is a shock plot development that brings the adult family together – a time for tensions, a time for flashbacks to more hurtful experiences, with an even greater pressure how the academic father humiliates his son and physically punishes him.
There are a number of parallels in the contemporary story between Michael and his nephew. The screenplay does not pull its punches as the characters interact and the harshness of family life is on display.
While these are the themes, it is the performances which bring them to life in unexpected ways. Ryan Reynolds shows an adult, now competent, but who is emotionally hamstrung by the traumatic experiences of his childhood and who still finds himself the butt of his father’s contempt. As Willem Dafoe plays the father, his portrait is of an arrogant man with high expectations for all of his family, even details of written rules for behaviour in the house. Michael is his great disappointment. Julia Roberts has more of a cameo role as Michael’s mother but more is revealed in the flashbacks about her relationship with her husband and some more secrets than we might have expected. Others in the cast include Emily Watson as the grown-up sister (Hayden Pannettiere as the younger woman), and Carrie Ann Moss.
There are a number of happy moments (even with actual fireflies in the garden) but there is a pervading unhappiness – until there is some emotional relenting on all sides so that happiness might be possible.
1.A piece of Americana? American families, tensions?
2.The grim aspect of the screenplay, performances? Harshness, trauma, secrets, relenting, reconciliation and hope?
3.The Texas settings, the town, the countryside, the river? An authentic feel? Musical score?
4.The title, Michael’s book, its tone and contents, the actual scene of the fireflies in the garden?
5.The structure: Michael as a boy, his relationship with his parents, the treatment by his father, the tension in the car, being put out in the field, the rain, not having a key, waiting for his family, the issue of his glasses?
6.Moving forward to Michael as an adult, Michael and Ryne, the meeting, for their mother’s graduation, the two as adults and their relationship?
7.Michael’s father and mother, driving to the ceremony, late, arguing, his mother not having a seatbelt, Christopher and his sister playing baseball, the extra hit, the mother allowing it, running out onto the road? The swerve, the crash, death?
8.The impact of the accident, the father surviving, the mother dying, Ryne and her weeping, at the hospital, the father’s talk about the perfect funeral and Michael hearing it? At the funeral, his father’s criticisms of his coat, Christopher sitting in the car?
9.The gathering, Kelly’s arrival, Michael on the roof, the tension between the two, the sexual encounter, the noise during the speech, Ryne and the others laughing? The father irate? His behaviour during the meal, later with Lesley, apologising?
10.Christopher and Lesley, playing, their banter, the accident and its effect? His behaviour with the therapist? Michael and his taking the children out fishing, exploding the fish, their lying to Jane, Jane and her angry reaction, the funeral, the meals? Christopher and his disappearance, throwing away the mobile phone, in the cemetery, Michael as a help?
11.Michael, his age, author, the new manuscript, his relationship with the kids, with Jane and the memories of the past, her not wanting the manuscript published? With Kelly, the news that she was pregnant, his response? A future with her? His coming to terms with his father, the possibilities of reaching out, his father’s presence, ignoring him, his asking his father about their relationship? The father and his gradual relenting?
12.Ryne, her mother pregnant with her during the scenes with Michael as a child, the birth, the issue of a name? Her growing up, studies, relationship with her father, with her brother?
13.Kelly, alcoholism, being dry, coming to the funeral, the tentativeness of her entry, her relationship with the rest of the family, tentative with Michael, the sexual encounter, the pregnancy, her support, supporting Jane in the search for Christopher?
14.Jane, her background, coming to stay with the family during the summer, precocious, the father and his rules, Michael writing them out, Jane and her reaction? The grown-up Jane, her relationship with her husband, his going away to work, supportive? With her children? Handling the situation of her sister’s death?
15.The father, his anger, perfectionism, ridiculing his son, the rules, his relationship with his wife, the later revelation of the affair, the tension, Michael discovering the documents for the divorce, his burning them?
16.Michael’s mother, as played by Julia Roberts, love for her son, acquiescing to her husband’s wishes? Her anger with him? The birth of Ryne? Later, studies, the affair with the lecturer? The character of the lecturer, talking with Michael, Michael confronting him with the documents, his telling the truth?
17.The effect of this on Michael, coming to terms with his mother, his father, Kelly and the pregnancy? Hope for the future? Calling the child Max?
18.A portrait of an American family, some members close, other members antagonistic, trauma, upsets, the possibilities of reconciliation?
