Review of The Hanging Garden (1997) by Tony U — 12 Jun 2007

What a surprise. After watching a classic Hitchcock movie prior, I opted to stay awake at 11pm (pass my bedtime) just to "give a quick watch" of this movie so that I'd be drowsy and fall asleep.

It is now 1:15am and I am awake and turned my computer on to write a review on this surprisingly amazing movie.

I have no idea how I got a hold of this. I rec'd it in Nexflix, perhaps a recommendation from one of my cinema friends.

The story immediately gripped me with the cinematography of combining in a single scene duality of a person's past and present. It was an usual style but highly original and highly effective.

The blunt dialogue is at times funny, disturbing, and thought provoking. The stories within the stories was powerful as well such as how we are introduced to the main character's "young sister" who at the end winds up being his daughter.

The acting of all the characters was powerful. Sweet William is amazingly pragmatic and very convincing as a man pragmatically dealing with and trying to understand the demons of the broken down family that he is a part of.

The chemistry between his closeness between him and his sister and him and his grandmother is beautiful.

The grandma's traditional catholic ideals adds an amazing blend of humor. Her acting flawless as a woman who has altzheimer.

His drunk father plays a powerful role. We feel his character as a drunk idealist whose heart is all but dead.

His mom was powerful as a woman who has.

Thom Fitzgerald's writing of dialogue is one I will be attentive for and hope to see more of.

The music and overall cinematic style is minimalist and with natural lighting.

This is a moving film that has numerous memorable moments, some funny, some insane, and many thought provoking on many levels.

I like how the stories unravel themselves out sometimes being obviously predictable and others totally catching one by surprise.

An A+ movie. The best movie I have scene in awhile.