Film Review: FIREFLIES IN THE GARDEN (2008)

Co-Writer/Director: Dennis Lee
Running time: 96 mins (approx)
Certification (UK): 12

Genre: Drama
UK release date 29th March 2009

Watched on Sky+ Saturday 26th February 2011.

PLEASE NOTE: THERE MAY BE SPOILERS IN THIS REVIEW.

This film was recommended to me by someone on Rotten Tomatoes (sorry, I can’t remember who). Reading through the cast list, it looks very impressive but as we well know, a great cast doesn’t necessarily make for a great film. This, unfortunately, proves the theory all too well. Although there are some great performances, the film lacks any heart, you don’t really care about the characters as so it all kind of falls apart. More of my thoughts later, here’s a brief summary first (summary haters and those that don’t wish to know anything about the plot please go fishing while I write the next paragraph).

Michael Taylor is a writer of romance novels. His father, Charles, a much more serious and successful writer is a bully and made Michael’s childhood a misery. His mother, Lisa, is killed in an accident on the day Michael arrived home to celebrate her graduation from University. He is not alone, his sister, Ryne is with him, and his aunt, Jane Lawrence, and her family, husband Jimmy & children, Christopher and Leslie, are all there to support him. His ex-wife, Kelley arrives for the funeral and we are told, through flashback, of his life growing up in the same house in which Jane and her family now live. There is a sub-plot involving a manuscript that Michael has recently written, the significance of which is never really made clear.

Nicely shot with some really lovely imagery used, so hats off to the cinematographer on this one. As I said at the beginning, there are some great performances here. Ryan Reynolds stands out as Michael and Willem Dafoe is great, as ever, as Charles. Emily Watson did a great job as Jane Lawrence, Carrie-Anne Moss, again, a quality performance as Kelly Hanson and Julia Roberts was also great as Lisa. It was also nice to see Hayden Panettiere as Young Jane Lawrence (in flashbacks) and I thought Cayden Boyd did an outstanding job as Young Michael Taylor.

Now, despite all the star names in the cast and all the great individual performances, this film, I’m afraid, doesn’t quite work. The pace is, at times, painfully slow and I just couldn’t find anything I could care about in any of the characters. It’s a shame, I really wanted to like this one, but I guess you’ve got to watch a few turkeys sometimes so you can appreciate the good ones! Oh, and finally, I found the cruelty to wildlife depicted here in very poor taste, maybe another thing that put me off the characters. Sadly, NOT recommended.

My score: 4.8/10

LINKS:
(RT = Rotten Tomatoes)
IMDb Page: http://uk.imdb.com/title/tt0961108/
RT Page: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/10008601-fireflies_in_the_garden/
Trailer (Sorry about the subtitles): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=phtd7XOiky0

Film Review: DUPLICITY (2009)

Writer/Director: Tony Gilroy
Running time: 115 mins (approx)
Certificate (UK): 12

Watched on Sky+ Wednesday 10th February 2010.

PLEASE NOTE: POSSIBLE SPOILERS IN THIS REVIEW.

I’m not usually a great fan of films starring Clive Owen, but in this case I’ve had to make an exception. He’s as witty and charming as he usually is, but this time, playing opposite Julia Roberts he appears to have finally learned how to act. In all the other roles I’ve seen him in before he’s never really struck me as a leading man, but in this film I think he’s cracked it! But enough about him, let’s talk about the film as a whole.

Howard Tully and Richard Garsik are two big businessmen, and as such are very careful with their sensitive industrial secrets. To this end they employ teams of industrial spies to keep tabs on each other. Ray Koval is working for British Intelligence when he meets Claire Stenwick, who is working for the CIA at the time. After a bit of a false start they eventually hit it off and hatch a plan to get rich. They will go into the private sector with the idea of ripping off some rich businessmen. To this end Claire is employed by Garsik and sent to spy on Tully, later on, Ray is also employed by Garsik, but by now doesn’t know whether he can still trust Claire. With me so far? We are told that Tully is about to announce a new major product and Garsik wants to steal it. Claire and Ray also want to steal it, but do they trust each other? Just who can you trust in this twisted game? I guess you’ll have to watch the movie to find out…

I was pleasantly surprised by this film; I found it very entertaining with some really good performances. I liked the style of the film, the story is told partly in flashback, which really helped in keeping the story fresh. In each flashback a little bit more was revealed about out two main protagonists. I thought it was an excellent performance from Clive Owen as Ray Koval, and Julia Roberts was easily his equal as Claire Stenwick. I also very much enjoyed the performances of Tom Wilkinson as Howard Tully and Paul Giamatti as Richard Garsik, both really pulled all the stops out!

Over all, a very entertaining crime thriller with more than a hint of romance thrown in on the side. A very enjoyable way to while away a couple of hours and a film I can heartily recommend.

My score: 7.5/10

LINKS:
IMDb Site: http://uk.imdb.com/title/tt1135487/
Official Site: http://www.duplicitymovie.net/
Trailer: http://uk.imdb.com/rg/VIDEO_PLAY/LINK/video/imdb/vi3650552601/