FIREFLIES IN THE GARDEN - DVD REVIEW
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Director: Dennis Lee
Cast: Julia Roberts, Wilam Dafoe, Ryan Reynolds
Rating: **1/2
Julia Roberts, Wilam Dafoe and Ryan Reynolds are instantly
recognisable names on a poster. They command high salaries and appear
in Box Office gold mines. Why would they feature in something that
Perhaps out of a favour? Perhaps the role on paper looked a
challenging one. One thing is clear, many A list actors does not an A
list movie make.
Dafoe is the typical abusive macho father to Reynolds' character mike.
Roberts plays the strong-willed mother. When tragedy strikes the
family the relationships that stemmed from childhood are re-examined
and new paths are forged.
Roberts Reynolds and Dafoe provide credible performances. Particularly
Reynolds who delves into an interesting relationship with his
character's estranged wife.
The critical element that fell over here was direction. Helmer, Denis Lee took a Robert Frost poem and padded it out into a movie. The chop and
change from present to past and back again was tedious and not very
well executed. This was the main driver for this reviewers lack of
focus throughout.
Whilst every effort to engage the viewer was made here, this fell
short of expectation.
There were no surprises here and our hero mike was looking for
redemption and resolve and ultimately is met with little resistance on
The fireflies they speak of are somewhat of a fizzer giving us little
more than embers ignite interest or intrigue in this tale.
Children always bring about innocence in this genre and the ability to
view adult situations through fresh eyes. This was something lacking
here. There could have been more done to demonstrate the breakdown in
the relationship between mike's parents.
Fireflies is good enough to fill a void if craving a DVD however does not provide stellar performances from our main players or deliver a knock out blow from the script by any means.
