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45 out of 69 people found the following comment useful :-
Great Movie and Ryan Rocks!, 28 March 2008
8/10
Author: melvam1 from United States

I was lucky enough to see an early screening of "Fireflies in the Garden" and it was great. While there were several stand out performances--Julia Roberts, Cayden Boyd, Hayden Panettiere...I have to say Ryan Reynolds is the one that really got me. First of all this is not one of his usual roles. Secondly, while his incredible comedic timing added lightness at appropriate moments and depth to his character's struggles, it was the open access to his heart that really moved me. Third of all...I don't really have a point but, now I'm a FAN! Um, I ended up crying quite a bit watching this movie. It's great! I hope it's released soon.

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20 out of 27 people found the following comment useful :-
It Could Have Been Great, 21 August 2008
8/10
Author: msmspacek from Russia

I agree with Raj Doctor, although I would rate the film higher.

The film was released in Russia with little publicity and became lost in the summer blockbusters. Without revealing information, the acting is excellent. The story is very indeed very realistic. If you find realism boring, then this is not a film for you.

The final third of the film, however, is missing. I have read that at the Berlin Film Festival, where the film premiered, it was announced to be 2 hours long, but the version in Russia is missing 20 minutes. Because the ending felt rushed while the rest of it was very well controlled, I cannot help but believe that this time was taken out of the final act. It's a shame really, because it could have been a great film. As it is, it is still a very good film that I recommend for the patient viewer.

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20 out of 29 people found the following comment useful :-
Fireflies in the garden, 20 August 2008
6/10
Author: Raj Doctor from Amsterdam, Netherlands

The movie was released with little publicity and it seems to be running with a low profile in Amsterdam.

The story is about a writer Michael (Ryan Reynolds) who is about to finish his first autobiographical novel – and he has come to attend the funeral of his mother Lisa's (Julia Roberts) death, who has a tormenting marriage with her husband Charles (Willem Dafoe) – who is also abusive to his son Michael. The story goes back and forth with flashbacks and evolving relationship between Michael and Charles. There is a sub-plot of Michael and Lisa's sister Jane's (Emily Watson) childhood affair and Michael's relationship with Jane's son – who feels isolated. In the end – there is a get feel understanding between father and son. The movie ends there.

The movie is good, but could have had been great. Ryan Reynolds looks fantastic, but Willem Dafoe steals the show with the negative role of father. Julia Roberts fits well in her small cameo as mother. While Emily Watson is good.

The Director Dennis Lee has strong script and story line, but does not bring about the required finishing touch to the movie. The cinematography is excellent. The editing between current and flashback is very well handled. The movie was inspired from a poem (with the same name) written by Robert Frost and co-written by the Director Dennis Lee.

Those people who have suffered child abuse by their disciplinary fathers would surely identify with the characters and may have tender moments – that may make them cry.

The movie does not become too heavy on the audience even though there are a few disturbing scenes.

(Stars 6.5 out of 10)

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22 out of 37 people found the following comment useful :-
Small things, 15 July 2008
7/10
Author: kosmasp

I watched this movie at the Berlin Film Festival and I have to admit that I was surprised by Ryan Reynolds. He can play the dramatic role(s) as you can see him do here ...

His performance anchors the movie and although we have other great actors here too, he is the one that leads us into and through the story. You won't be surprised to hear/read that the story is semi-auto-biographical. It is that deep and it goes into his characters. Having said that, William Dafoe is somewhat of a show-stealer too. Although I do think he could have been a bit better sketched (yes OK he's defined by a real human, but it feels more like a restriction to me). All in all, a drama with occasional light moments in an overall dark story.

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10 out of 14 people found the following comment useful :-
Dysfunctional Fireflies and the Case of the Exploding Fish, 12 October 2008
Author: MacAindrais from Canada

Fireflies in the Garden (2008) **1/2

The problem with movies about dysfunctional families is the same one that spy movies have: they're a dime a dozen, and rarely offer anything new. Wes Anderson has made dysfunction his specialty. Noah Baumbach's Squid and the Whale was also a very good film about dysfunctional families, as is Jonathan Demme's new film Rachael Getting Married. Dennis Lee's feature length debut, Fireflies in the Garden is a technically well made film. It looks good, it sounds good. Lee is a sound director. But good direction can't always save a flat script. That's the problem with the movie. It offers nothing new into an already crowded genre.

I suspect that the film's script must have looked quite good. After all, it netted a slew of stars - Ryan Reynolds, Emily Watson, Willem Defoe, Hayden Panettiere, Iaon Gruffud, and Julia Roberts. Reynolds stars as as Michael Waechter, the son of a self absorbed intellectual jerk, Charles (Dafoe). His mother is Lisa (Roberts). The film goes back and forth in time, between Michael's childhood and present day. While on the way to Rhyne, the daughter's graduation party, Charles and Lisa get into a car accident while trying to avoid Christopher, Lisa's nephew. Lisa is killed.

This sets up situations and complications to bring everyone together so they can argue and bicker, and of course, eventually reconcile. As the family gathers at the old family home, where Jane (Watson in the present, Panattiere in the past) now lives, old feelings are drudged over, and while going through their mother's things, Michael discovers a secret about his mother.

Robert's and Watson play caring mothers. Lisa is passive, maybe too passive. Why she allows Charles to get away with some of the cruel things he does to the young Michael are confounding.

Meanwhile, the film also glosses over the relationship between Jane and Michael, who are roughly the same age. That relationship is almost incestuous, although Lee never dares to fully delve into it. Everyone does solid work with their roles. Again a part of the technical solidity of the film. It's just that the story is too familiar, too flat. In the end, Dafoe has some moments of depth, and Reynolds gives a strong and layered performance. Otherwise, the script doesn't take enough time to flesh out its characters.

Sure Michael has every reason to hate his father. He's a jerk, unabashedly so. The story needs to be maybe flushed out more, or maybe way less. There are stories enough for about three movies here. The plot line regarding young Christopher, who feels tremendous guilt over Lisa's death is enough for a film of this length. But there are so many other stories going on that it gets only limited time.

There are some other small nitpicks that can be made. First, none of the kids look like their adult counterparts. That would be fine in a better movie, but here it's something you pick out. Second, although the film is set somewhere outside Chicago, it feels like somewhere in the south. Probably because it was shot in and around Texas.

Based on a script that floated around Hollywood for sometime before getting financed, Fireflies in the Garden has floated around looking for a release since its debut back at the Berlin Film Festival. It's reported that the film will get a release come November. I suspect it will be limited, and suspect that it won't stick around theaters for long. Robert's might attract a few patrons to the multiplexes, but I wouldn't count on this one to make a big splash with anyone. I'm sure Lee has better in him.

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4 out of 4 people found the following comment useful :-
Here on earth come emulating flies, That achieve at times a very star-like start. (Only, of course, they can't sustain the part.), 7 February 2009
7/10
Author: The-Kissable-Writer (thekissablewriter@gmail.com) from Belgium

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

How many percent of the earth is populated by writers? And does the same ratio count for the figments of imagination that inhabit our little screen? How many writers use their work to conquer their demons, usually to get rid of the grenade fragments left over from growing up in a dysfunctional family? Michael Waechter just finished his latest novel; serious literature. A merciless word storm, written in pure gall, a not to be misunderstood way of slaying his demon namely his terror-prone father. Previously only occupying himself with sugar sweet love tales, this indicates a radical change in Michael's authorial style as well as in his way of dealing with his troubled existence.

This is where the characters' journeys start, for our protagonist it's a search for a way of forgiving his father, his path is ridden with the verbalizing of a ton of words unsaid too long and energetic arguments, as the audience gets sucked in further and further the - in the beginning only skin-deep - dramatic tension mounts. The picture uses it's runtime skilfully, the development of the 'original' characters occupies nearly all scenes, once in a while the director permits us a small pause to catch our breath and reflect upon what just went on. The new generation (children Christopher and Leslie) clearly are being presented to us as a reincarnation of Michael and his young ante Jane, of who it's fair to say they grew up close enough to almost be brother and sister - the unmistakable physical resemblance alone says enough. The only significant difference is the nature of fathers, they have the luck of having a loving, gentler father who unfortunately is away a lot on business, where as Michael's father is the hard, domineering type, the kind of father who maybe loves his family a little too much to be healthy for him, or his family for that matter.

Herein eventually lies the human quality of the character and the redemption. Hereby we can wholeheartedly accept - even though it appeared not to be true for a very long time - Michael forgiving his father, which culminates in a catharsis-classic: the burning of his newborn baby book in the fireplace, and we can even rejoice in Michael regaining personal freedom.

Now, for those who are not convinced the father deserves being forgiven, that's not really the core of it all. The point is this: even deeply rooted hate, however justified, has to be overcome in order to be happy. Hate is so powerful it can and will easily consume the one who holds the grudge and it often destroy families. In my opinion the whole film is centered around Christopher, in order to save the child's still pure soul, Michael is forced to take that last, hard step towards full maturity.

A simple movie? Maybe. Simplistic? Absolutely not. Above everything else, this movie is oh so full of truth and genuine emotion.

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5 out of 7 people found the following comment useful :-
a pleasant surprise, 5 February 2009
7/10
Author: lgilbertom from Brazil

I watched this movie on DVD and I confess that I rented reluctantly this movie. However, I had a pleasant surprise, the story is about a boy who in his adult version is played by Ryan Reynolds with serious relationship problems with his father (William Dafoe). I am really surprise with Ryan Reynolds performance, also the young Michael with play Cayden Boyd. The whole story in one way or another turn around the problem of relationship between both. The movie uses well the flashback resource to show the problems of this family and especially the problems between Michael and his father. Naturally, there are good interpretations of the rest of the cast especially for Emily Watson(Michael's Aunt). A movie that really is worth watching.

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2 out of 2 people found the following comment useful :-
Fireflies in the Night, 14 August 2009
Author: Senyales from Fraggle Rock

Dennis Lee adapts Frost's poem with the same title. With such a big names associated with it, I wonder why 'Fireflies in the Garden' never got a US theatrical release. It is a well executed film. Danny Moder's cinematography is breathtaking and Javier Navarrete's score is superb. The story has an interesting premise but it needed fleshing out. It looks patchy at times. The casting is also a little awkward. Emily Watson and Hayden Panettiere are too different to play the same character convincingly and this was difficult for me to overlook. That said, Panettiere was quite decent and Watson is first rate but she deserved more screen time (and her character, the older Jane, needed more fleshing out). Ditto for Julia Roberts who, despite of a small role, has a strong presence throughout the entire film. I find her character's actions questionable. For example why does she choose to leave her husband when he cheats on her while all those years she stays with him when he's abusing their son? Ryan Reynolds shows growth as an actor. He displayed maturity in 'Definitely, Maybe' and seems to be going the right way as an actor. Willem Dafoe too does a terrific job from being the hateful father to being the softer old man but I would have liked to see more of the transformation in Charles because on the one hand he is shown to be a loving father (as shown in the home video) but on the other hand he doesn't seem to have changed much (the scene in the car when they're on their way to visit Jane and his temper at the dinner table). The director could have shown more of Lisa and Charles during their later years. I also liked Cayden Boyd's performance. Ioan Gruffudd and Carrie-Anne Moss do not have more than a couple of scenes. 'Fireflies in the Garden' seems like a well intentioned movie but it appears too rushed and patchy to fully involve the viewer. It needed more than 95 minutes of screen time. The visuals, soundtrack and performances make it a decent watch.

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1 out of 1 people found the following comment useful :-
Incredible cast, but you knew that..., 5 May 2009
7/10
Author: TEEDLE from United States

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

First and foremost, the actors in this film all deliver incredible performances, exactly what you would expect form such names as Julia Roberts, Willem Dafoe, and Emily Watson. I would say that I was surprised by Ryan Reynolds excellent performance but "Definitely, Maybe" had already convinced me that Reynolds can shine in a mature, non-comedic role. The cinematography also deserves to be noted and adds to the fact that this movie should have been great.

While the character development was somewhere between adequate and amazing depending on the character, this movie absolute lacks a complete storyline. While the father-son relationship is somewhat over unnecessarily overdeveloped, leaving essential all other relationships remaining a mystery. This is extremely true for the odd relationship between Michael and Jane. It was the unbalanced relationship development and less than substantial storyline that left this movie unfinished and full of holes. To me, it felt like waiting for something to happen only to realize during the credits that nothing has, that somehow everything had magically worked itself out during a long blink.

I have to give this film a relatively high rating due to the acting alone and the fact that Ryan Reynolds deserves it. I hope to see him soon in any role he chooses, whether it be comedic or dramatic.

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11 out of 21 people found the following comment useful :-
A Wonderful Film and Masterly Performance by Julia Roberts, 7 October 2008
10/10
Author: crazyjake from Turkey

The topic of this movie really attracted me at first. After Berlin Film Festival reviews I just thought it was an average movie. After watching the movie I can easily say Fireflies in the Garden is a very good film. The Emotion it gives you is very deep. Musics are very influential,cinematography is very good, it was not a very original directed movie but totally it was successful.

And the most important thing about the movie "acting" . Everyone did their job very good even Hayden Panettiere she was OK . Ryan Reynods was an average actor for me but after watching this I can say she's a fine actor.little boy was very good too. Emily Watson was very good as usual and Carrie-Anne Moss was so charismatic. And Julia Roberts she was awesome. Academy Award winning actresses shows her talent every of her scenes! I think she will be a nominee for this year's Academy Awards. It's a must see film especially for the people who love movies about family stuff.

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