The title is the first sign that the audience is in for it. The second is a child's voice reading from The Jungle Book, and the third is the voice of a counselor (John Malkovich) comforting the pretty young thing sitting before him. From there, we are treated to a dubiously long "Stranger Danger" sketch that pushes way beyond the limits of taste and reason: All dripping faucets, dulcet piano tinkling, blinking lightbulbs, fairy-tale allusions, and Tom Arnold whispering sweet nothings, Gardens of the Night poeticizes the horror of young Leslie (Ryan Simpkins) being kidnapped and passed around like a rag doll, along with her surrogate brother Donnie (Jermaine Smith), in a not-so-surreptitious child pornography ring that includes creeps played by B-listers Harold Perrineau and Jeremy Sisto. Pitched at the risible level of Marco Kreuzpaintner's Trade, the film never quite recovers from writer-director Damian Harris's dithering way of shooting things. Back in the present, the subject is the way the abused become abusers, and how the bond between the older Leslie (Gillian Jacobs) and Donnie (Evan Ross) is tested on the streets—but after being built on such a shoddy foundation, their current-day reality registers only as an afterthought.
*indicates required fields. Please enable browser cookies before filling out this form. All reader comments are subject to our Terms of Use. By clicking Add Comment, you acknowledge that you have reviewed and agree to these Terms.
Comments may take a few minutes to process and appear on the site. Please do not click the "Add Comment" button again while your comment is being added.
Webster HallNew York, NY |
Spotted PigNew York, NY |
Corner BistroNew York, NY |
Schiller's Liquor BarNew York, NY |
Gramercy TavernNew York, NY |
PachaNew York, NY |
Iamcuriousblue 06/11/2009 8:48:08 PM
I just stumbled upon this nasty little piece of "abuse porn" on Showtime the other night. Your review nails it. Unfortunately, too many other reviews of this movie are taken in by how "brave" it supposedly is for dealing with subject matter and such a forthright way. Unfortunately, this movie only serves to further the myth that child sexual abuse is primarily about children being attacked by strangers. (And the situation in this movie where children are kidnapped and successfully kept for months and years by their abuser is, thankfully, an incredibly rare event, though the movie would like to make you think this is typical of what a history of abuse looks like.) Actually, most sexual abuse takes place within families, or by someone in a position of authority or trust toward the children. Its a phenomenon simultaneously something more mundane than this movie grasps at and yet all the more serious for its mundane nature. The phrase "banality of evil" comes to mind when describing child sexual abuse, and it would take a more nuanced movie than GOTN to treat the subject.