Movie reviews

FIREFLIES IN THE GARDEN
CAST: Julia Roberts,Willem Dafoe,Ryan Reynolds,Emily Watson,Carrie Anne-Moss
DIRECTOR: Dennis Lee
Charles Waechter (Dafoe) isn’t a bad father; he just doesn’t know any other way. For years,Michael (Reynolds) has to bear the brunt of it,expected as he is to fall in line with his father’s strict rules and stern sense of discipline. For reciting a poem by Robert Frost (‘Fireflies in the Garden’,on which the film’s title is based) as his own,Charles punishes the 12-year-old by making him stand with arms held horizontal carrying large tins of paint,as he blares the car horn at him.
His mother Lisa (Roberts) is the one who holds Michael together. Weak as she is before Charles,she covers it up with her unquestioning love and undeniable warmth for Michael.
Their world is stirred when Lisa’s rebellious sister Jane (Watson) comes to stay with them. Not much older than Michael,she is aggressive and questioning,just what Michael isn’t.
Years pass and Lisa’s death in an unfortunate car accident as Michael swerves trying to prevent crushing Jane’s son,has brought the family together.
The film starts with this episode,and we learn the subtext of what looks like a couple of perfect living relationships in flashback.
Lee handles the back and forth between the present and the past well,and he has a solid screenplay (co-written by him) backed by great cinematography to work on. Where the film is especially strong is when painting the contrast between what used to be Michael’s existence in his father’s home and now Jane’s two children in the same house. He was silent,nervous and timid,a pall of glum perfection hanging over the house. Jane,the not-as-perfect sister,runs a more boisterous household,her children free to know and speak their mind.
Dafoe is the centrepiece of that contrast. While he may have demanded the world of Michael,with Jane’s son and daughter,he is the perfect uncle,treating them with respect but letting them be children. In his every expression and mannerism,he reflects that change. Still,in his dealings with Michael,the old self slips in,there is a harshness and coldness that doesn’t allow the two to reach out to each other. His daughter Ryne,who escaped that burden of expectations,carries no such luggage.
Where Lee fails is in establishing how Michael made the journey from that scared little boy to this confident author who doesn’t have to pretend to care about the little speech his father delivers about Lisa on her funeral; he rather uses the room above to have very noisy sex with his estranged wife. He also seemingly thinks nothing of blowing up fish with firecrackers and squashing fireflies in the garden (yes,it’s that subtle),and teaching kids the same.
There’s also a hint that Michael and Jane shared more than friendship as children,and this is also indicated in their conversation as adults. However,Lee chooses to skip this altogether.
The result is a film with two interesting parts – portending to ponder about what Frost wrote,about expectations and about people being special in their own ways – but which never really make a whole. Perhaps one of the reasons the film is releasing here a year late.

FAST & FURIOUS 4

CAST: Vin Diesel,Paul Walker

DIRECTOR: by Justin Lin

NEW Model,Original Parts. That’s supposed to be the USP of Fast & Furious 4. And yes,the film doesn’t lie,remaining true to its concept of action-on-wheels. There are enough women with little on and enough cars with a lot,apparently,to get the adrenaline going,and the story lurches from playing footsie with a petrol-carrying trailer truck down a cliff to racing across the Mexican border at night during that small window when the scanners are looking somewhere else. Giving the film its emotional fuel is Dom Teretto’s (Diesel) drive for revenge as lady love Letty (Michelle Rodriguez) is bumped off,though Diesel looks none the worse for it.

Yes,it is fast. But furious? That would be asking for too much from a guy with eyebrows for expression. Hop on for the ride,at your own peril.

shalini.langer@expressindia.com