Fireflies In The Garden (DVD)

Fireflies In The Garden certainly an excellent cast (including Ryan Reynolds, Emily Mortimer, Julia Roberts, Willem Dafoe, Hayden Panettiere, Carrie-Anne Moss and Ioan Gruffudd), presumably because it gives them all the chance to sink their teeth into really chunky roles. However as happens too often, while the actors are all good and their characters fascinating, as a whole the movie is rather confusing and never really delivers on its promise.

Successful romance novelist Michael (Ryan Reynolds) is travelling back home for a family get together, but just as he’s about to arrive, tragedy strikes when his mother (Julia Roberts) is killed in a car accident. The entire family is rocked by the death of this much loved woman, but Michael soon discovers new truths about his mother, while also trying to communicate with his distant and hateful father, as well as dealing with the impact events of the past have had on the family.

There’s a lot going on in the movie, as it flits between the present and flashbacks of Michael as a child, who suffered abuse at the hands of his absolute monster of a father. Meanwhile in the present his nephew feels responsible for the car accident, family secrets may be revealed in Michael’s new book and he also has to deal with the fact that he hasn’t told his family he’s split up with his wife.

Although there’s plenty of interesting drama, the film doesn’t really find a way to deal with it all, leaving it slightly confusing and rather underwhelming. For example, Michael’s father, Charles, is virtually psychotic and utterly cruel to his child, but the film never seem sure what it wants us to feel about their relationship, particularly at the end, when it suddenly decides things weren’t that bad after all, even though that’s not what we’ve seen. Likewise things about the characters are hinted at – such as Michael and his aunt having had a relationship – but never go anywhere, and there’s generally a lack of focus and cohesion.

It’s a shame because individually the characters are great, but as they go through the story, their actions and interactions becomes less and less convincing. There are some incredibly powerful and strong moments, but Fireflies In The Garden never manages to bring things together and the ending seems to have been taken from a much less dramatic and emotionally simpler film, in which such easy resolutions would seem more believable.

Although the film marks first time feature writer/director Dennis Lee as one to watch, hopefully next time he’ll be able to turn his talent for great characters into a story that works a bit better as a whole than Fireflies In The Garden does. It doesn’t help either that the DVD has no special features.

Overall Verdict: Despite a great cast and excellent characters, the film itself is often confused and offers resolutions that don’t seem honest.

Special Features:
None

Reviewer: Tim Isaac