Review of Gardens of the Night (2008) by Jesse O — 29 Mar 2014

The film certainly means well to shine a spotlight on a very real and heartbreaking issue, but this is really a glorified Lifetime movie disguised as an independent film. Damian Harris claims to have spent 10 years doing research for this film.

I'm certainly not doubting that at all, but what I am saying is that he didn't find a way to successfully implement his research into an emotionally engaging story. That might sound a little cold, but it's the truth.

I found the film to be quite the chore that just dragged and dragged and dragged. It doesn't help that the film is really heavily dramatized in order to manipulate your emotions. The story would be heartbreaking enough without the film CLEARLY manipulating you in order to get the response they desire.

That's what gives it that TV film quality. There's some good parts to the film, like Leslie's and Donnie's relationship and how they've grown to depend on each other in the face of horrific consequences.

And how that sort of develops into an "attraction" when they're both much older. The problem is that, while Gillian Jacobs and Evan Ross are both individually good, though Evan has one really bad scene, they don't really have much chemistry with each other and the film is just TRYING so hard to tell this story of these two, who wouldn't have even met if it wasn't due to the fact they were both kidnapped as children and forced into prostitution, and how they're meant to be together forever to look after each other.

It was a good idea but the chemistry between Evan and Gillian was definitely lacking and that really hurt what the film was trying to do. Good idea, but the leads just don't have any chemistry. It's clear they were just paid to pretend to like each other and I mean they ARE actors, so that's what they're hired to do.

But in many movies, the chemistry between the leads is such that it doesn't FEEL like they're pretending, it just feels like an extension of their real-life relationship, or even friendship. Movies like This Is The End work because it's clear that everyone involved in the cast is friends with each other and that translates on-screen and it makes the film that much more fun.

Not that this film was ever meant to be fun, but the point is that you can see through the facade, you can tell that Evan and Gillian probably, while maybe they didn't dislike each other, had very little in common with each other and didn't hang out together unless it was strictly for the benefits of the film.

You can see through it immediately and that's a very big problem with the film. On top of the fact that it tells you the TV movie version of the story rather than the real one. Like I said, there's some good moments and the acting is more than solid, but the film's story and its pacing really leaves a lot to be desired.

I say this a lot, but the worst thing a film can be is a chore to sit through, because if I had stopped the film halfway through, it wouldn't have bothered me if I never finished it. That's a problem, so the film, in my view, missed the mark on its subject matter by a monumental margin.

Wouldn't really recommend this film at all.