Fireflies in the Garden (2008)

I love this movie so much

One of my all time favorites.

Good concept, poorly executed.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

Any review of this film must begin with pointing out the most outstanding performance and real reason for seeing it. Ms. Emily Watson gives a performance of overwhelming power, of such beauty, subtlety, and artistic perfection that it defies description. Watson has a talent, humanity, and artistry that goes beyond all words. In Fireflies in the Garden it is one of compassion, love, and a uniquely smoldering sexuality that belongs to Emily Watson alone. There are many superb actresses working in film today but only one continues to burn her being into the very soul of audiences with one performance after another.

Watching this film prompts one's mind to be crossed by a reflection on how can Hollywood productions adhere to the same commonplaces with as huge constancy as they do. All, from voicing/dubbing, to «emotions» and «events» comes foreseen. «Un segreto tra di noi» is exemplar in its mediocrity — here «mediocrity» being a term which means «averageness» as it did over the centuries before getting its modern negative connotation.It might sound a mystery how people do not get fed up with watching the same things an indefinite amount of times, a mystery whose solution is that, simply, they do not realize it's all time the same. «Un segreto tra di noi» proves small effort or talent even in fulfilling that necessary delusion: suffices it to see how plain and everyday sex sequences are: they are radically lifeless whereas obedience to stereotypes compels their presence.This is all what I was thinking about this work till a certain moment; but then, something not customary to mainstream occurred, and there is no denying this film brings us a message — carried by Willem Dafoe who often happens to in a lapse remind us how decisive actors are to films — worth being listened.

This film tells the story of a novelist whose mother dies in a traffic accident. He is family is transformed forever.The story is a mix of present day family interactions of the novelist Michael Taylor, and his flashbacks to his childhood days when he endured emotional abuse from his father. Michael's experience is sad, and I am pleased to see that he turned out to be a functional individual. The father is also a memorable character, as his behaviour is truly despicable. The tale of dysfunctional family interaction, and the subsequent understanding and forgiveness is a nice to watch. However, somehow they do not make much emotional impact on me. Maybe the lost 30 minutes are crucial in engaging the viewers."Fireflies in the Garden" has amassed a lot of biggest stars of Hollywood, and I am surprised that it has not got a wider release as a result.

"Fireflies in the Garden" is one of those rare movies where a stellar cast and script based on a Robert Frost poem (!) could not get itself a release. Four years later, it got a straight-to-DVD release. And for good reason, it's really bad. It's a dysfunctional family drama where the characters are messed up from beginning to middle to end. There is no relief, comedy or otherwise, from the dysfunction.It starts with the guise that perhaps it's not dysfunctional from the very beginning, but no, it is. I made the mistake of reading the back of the DVD case, where I was informed that the Taylors are the very picture of a happy and successful American family. I wonder what constitutes a successful family: Is it the father emotionally and physically abusing his son? Or the husband emotionally and physically abusing his wife? Or the inappropriate relationship between aunt and nephew? Because all of that was conveyed to us in the first two scenes. Not from the very first minute did I confuse this family as a happy and successful one.The film also implies that the family wants to get out from their past and start afresh. Whether they want to or not, that's not going to happen because they don't even know what a happy and successful family looks like let alone how to be one.The now grown up son, Michael (Ryan Reynolds) has returned home along with his sister and aunt and father (Willem Dafoe). Michael is a writer because it's the classic profession to be able to rid yourself of past demons. I was expecting a sort of mystery to develop as the film certainly did imply that each character was hiding something. Of course they were hiding things – repressed emotions. Which doesn't build to a mystery but melodrama.The title refers to the Frost poem but also one of their childhood activities. Along with everyone I know, on warm summer evenings when the fireflies would be out in their brilliant glory, we would catch them in jars, keep them in our bedrooms, trying to savour the magic of the night. But not the Taylor kids. On warm summer evenings when the glowing fireflies were out, they would go and kill them. Any sympathy was instantly lost, never to be regained.