Film review: 'The Hanging Garden'
With a nonlinear structure and surreal atmosphere -- where the past, present and future can co-exist -- MGM and Goldwyn Films' "The Hanging Garden" is another prestigious Canadian art house production coming on the heels of "The Sweet Hereafter".
The troubled boyhood of an overweight misfit haunts his slimmer self 10 years later when he returns to his messed-up family in Nova Scotia.
The debut of writer-director Thom Fitzgerald won four Genie Awards and has appeared in numerous festivals, but the limited release's commercial prospects are negligible. Still, it's an accomplished drama that shows promise with engaging performances and a uniquely troublesome atmosphere.
All of the major characters are named for flowers and garden plants in the story that takes place mainly in the family home of Sweet William (Chris Leavins), a 25-year-old gay man who was hit and verbally abused as a child and teen by his alcoholic brute of a father, gardening taskmaster Whiskey Mac (Peter MacNeill).
The adult William's attendance at the wedding of his rambunctious sister Rosemary (Kerry Fox) sets off a round of bitter and sweet memories, including a fateful mutual crush between the obese teenage William (Troy Veinotte) and his handsome friend Fletcher (Joel Keller). A too-silent ally who over time pays the bitter price for standing by her man, William's mother Iris (Seana McKenna) is shocked when she learns of her son's infatuation and sets him up with a neighborhood woman.
Such unexpected scenes as Iris sitting alone listening to the sounds of her son's sex education make "Hanging" unpredictable. When the adult William starts to see a vision of his former self dead from suicide, the film becomes open to various speculations, which are never clearly resolved.
Rounding out the lead character's world of woe as a youngster is his half-senile grandmother Grace (Joan Orenstein), a quarrelsome aunt (Jocelyn Cunningham) and a blind old dog. Saah Polley is wickedly memorable as the teenage Rose, while Fox is raw and raunchy as the older, in some ways wilder Rose.
While McKenna is commanding as a beleaguered mother with a monster husband, MacNeill bullies everyone and dominates his scenes. Veinotte and Leavins are both excellent, playing an uncomfortably passive character and keeping one involved with a frankly depressing scenario.
All about getting through dark times and changing your life, with help from one's family, "Hanging" is bitter medicine -- and its effects linger. Somber but not without lighter moments, the picture was evocatively filmed in Halifax, Nova Scotia, by transplanted New Yorker Fitzgerald and cinematographer Daniel Jobin.
THE HANGING GARDEN
MGM Distribution Co.
Goldwyn Films presents
Channel 4 and Alliance Communications
A Triptych Media/Galafilm/Emotion Pictures production
Writer-director: Thom Fitzgerald
Producers: Louise Garfield, Arnie Gelbart, Thom Fitgerald
Director of photography: Daniel Jobin
Production designer: Taavo Soodor
Editor: Susan Shanks
Costume designer: James A. Worthen
Music: John Roby
Casting: Martha Chesley, John Dunsworth
Color/stereo
Cast:
Sweet William: Chris Leavins
Teenage Sweet William: Troy Veinotte
Rosemary: Kerry Fox
Teenage Rosemary: Sarah Polley
Iris: Seana McKenna
Whiskey Mac: Peter MacNeill
Fletcher: Joel Keller
Grace: Joan Orenstein
Laurel: Jocelyn Cunningham
Running time -- 89 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
The troubled boyhood of an overweight misfit haunts his slimmer self 10 years later when he returns to his messed-up family in Nova Scotia.
The debut of writer-director Thom Fitzgerald won four Genie Awards and has appeared in numerous festivals, but the limited release's commercial prospects are negligible. Still, it's an accomplished drama that shows promise with engaging performances and a uniquely troublesome atmosphere.
All of the major characters are named for flowers and garden plants in the story that takes place mainly in the family home of Sweet William (Chris Leavins), a 25-year-old gay man who was hit and verbally abused as a child and teen by his alcoholic brute of a father, gardening taskmaster Whiskey Mac (Peter MacNeill).
The adult William's attendance at the wedding of his rambunctious sister Rosemary (Kerry Fox) sets off a round of bitter and sweet memories, including a fateful mutual crush between the obese teenage William (Troy Veinotte) and his handsome friend Fletcher (Joel Keller). A too-silent ally who over time pays the bitter price for standing by her man, William's mother Iris (Seana McKenna) is shocked when she learns of her son's infatuation and sets him up with a neighborhood woman.
Such unexpected scenes as Iris sitting alone listening to the sounds of her son's sex education make "Hanging" unpredictable. When the adult William starts to see a vision of his former self dead from suicide, the film becomes open to various speculations, which are never clearly resolved.
Rounding out the lead character's world of woe as a youngster is his half-senile grandmother Grace (Joan Orenstein), a quarrelsome aunt (Jocelyn Cunningham) and a blind old dog. Saah Polley is wickedly memorable as the teenage Rose, while Fox is raw and raunchy as the older, in some ways wilder Rose.
While McKenna is commanding as a beleaguered mother with a monster husband, MacNeill bullies everyone and dominates his scenes. Veinotte and Leavins are both excellent, playing an uncomfortably passive character and keeping one involved with a frankly depressing scenario.
All about getting through dark times and changing your life, with help from one's family, "Hanging" is bitter medicine -- and its effects linger. Somber but not without lighter moments, the picture was evocatively filmed in Halifax, Nova Scotia, by transplanted New Yorker Fitzgerald and cinematographer Daniel Jobin.
THE HANGING GARDEN
MGM Distribution Co.
Goldwyn Films presents
Channel 4 and Alliance Communications
A Triptych Media/Galafilm/Emotion Pictures production
Writer-director: Thom Fitzgerald
Producers: Louise Garfield, Arnie Gelbart, Thom Fitgerald
Director of photography: Daniel Jobin
Production designer: Taavo Soodor
Editor: Susan Shanks
Costume designer: James A. Worthen
Music: John Roby
Casting: Martha Chesley, John Dunsworth
Color/stereo
Cast:
Sweet William: Chris Leavins
Teenage Sweet William: Troy Veinotte
Rosemary: Kerry Fox
Teenage Rosemary: Sarah Polley
Iris: Seana McKenna
Whiskey Mac: Peter MacNeill
Fletcher: Joel Keller
Grace: Joan Orenstein
Laurel: Jocelyn Cunningham
Running time -- 89 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
- 5/14/1998
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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