Customer Reviews

Gardens of the Night

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This movie was done very well. It opens your eyes to the adverse effect that young kids go through who are abducted from their family and friends. Children are not as tune to deception of people that they are easily persuaded by strangers to follow them. All parents should take the time and talk to their kids. Everyone is a stranger and be careful if it is someone you don't know that is trying to be nice to you.

All of the actors in this movie did an excellent job.

As a parent, I understand the importance of the content regarding children being kidnapped domestically and ending up lost in the sex/slave rings, but man this was a difficult watch. Even harder than Holly (also trailered on this DVD).

The story follows a young, upper-middle class girl (played incredibly by Ryan Simpkins, who coincidentally blew me away with her brief adult-style performance in Balls Out) as she is lured by a pedophile into an irreversible life of long term abuse and abandonment. The film flashes between her youth and later adult existence on the streets. No part of this topic is easy to watch, but everyone plays their roles adequately. Tom Arnold is absolutely scary as the pedophile, he was completely believable to the extreme.

The video and sound quality were fine, and the supplements cover the array of related topics. The deleted scenes were thankfully cut out (even more graphic), but it did show the obvious confusion towards the end of the film in the writing and editing. Malkovich and Sisto already had abbreviated parts, but as I was watching the end Michelle Rodriguez' part seemed strangely miscut, but then left in the deleted scenes, as were the alternate parent actors' roles. The credit listings supplement to help people learn about this topic were too "edgy" and distracting, it could have been made more straightforward and a great deal clearer.

An important awareness content film, hardly rewatchable, a few faults here and there, but the two performances of the main girl are worthy of acknowledgment.

I gave this movie 5 stars because of the phenomenal acting. You will cry when you watch it. It's the type of film that is very difficult to watch, but you can't stop watching it. The questions I have are: What happened to Alex and Frank and how did Leslie and Donnie get away from them? Does Leslie ever find Donnie? And it would have been nice to see Leslie and Donnie's lives as adults. Despite the lack of details, it was a great independent movie. I'm not sure it's worth buying, because you will most likely only watch it once.

Saw this film recently on Showtime and it was based on the fact that John Malkovich was in it but unfortunately it is primarily a cameo of about 10 minutes of screen time. The kidnapping of a little girl from her San Diego home was harrowing to say the least and the acting from Tom Arnold as the abductor and Jeremy Sisto, Harold Perrineau as his confederates was also very good but the film just dragged on to its dismal conclusion. I often wonder what the filmmakers intent was to have such an un resolved ending? I was hoping that the female, now a teenager would slowly be indoctrinated back into her family. What's also missing from this disappointing film is that we are not shown what the abductors did when she reached the teen age or how she was dumped back into society. So basically the blame is on the writer and director of this film rather than the actors the actress playing grown teenage girl lacks a center in her acting.

Very painful film, but with large amounts of processing material with your victim clients or offender clients. I am a psychotherapist and found this film to show how the pain of molest may be long and hard to deal with. For my offender clients they are able to feel empathy for the kids and their victims.

Being a fan of Gillian Jacobs from her role on Community, I wanted to see some of her other characters and see her in a dramatic role. However, I was not really prepared for a movie of this type. As other people have stated it was so hard to watch yet you had to finish the movie. I almost need to go to therapy just after watching it. This is a movie that I will definitely recommend to others.

I suppose this is a good movie. Writer/Director Damien Harris does a fine job of hitting all the points the right way. I guess my problem is the story itself. It certainly isn't fun to watch. I know there are people out there doing the things that are done in this movie, but I don't need to see it.

A young girl gets kidnapped by a man (well played by Tom Arnold) and his buddy who first use her in internet child porn and then for prostitution. This is scary and painful to watch. What makes it tougher to view is the Tom Arnold character. He isn't a nasty, mean, drooling individual. He does seem to care for her at some level, and you get the hint his upbringing wasn't very joyous so he's not so easy to write off. He has also kidnapped a young African American boy for the same purposes and these two kids realize they are all they have and form a bond.

You skip ahead some 10 years or so and the two (Leslie and Frank) are still together. But now the Tom Arnold character and his buddy are gone and the kids are on the streets. They smoke, drink, do drugs and turn tricks. The people they hang with are the same. It's an ugly realization.

Through her trying to get into a shelter, the administrator, played by John Malkovich, finds out who she is and is able to send her home and reunite her with her family. I won't spoil it for you but let's say that Hollywood is no where to be found here.

Again. This is good. The writing, acting, camerawork, sound and music are as good as they need to be to get this done and done well. I don't know if it could have been done any better, but darn. I need hope in my life and you won't find it here.

Watched a haji copy of this film. I'll get a real copy later to see all the extras in the film.

I squirmed in my seat watching the first 1/2 hour of the movie, then threw it in the trash as the movie, with much implied off camera tricks, presented criminal activity involving minors. The story knawed and badgered my mind to go back to the trash can, retrieve the movie and see what happened to the poor victims in the movie.

My compliments to the director for paring down the typical Hollywood violence to that of Hitchcock-implied violence so the audience isn't scared away from the subject matter.

The performances by all thespians in the movie were great, I look forward in viewing future parts they will take up. Kudos to Tom Arnold for his portrayal of the bad guy-- I never thought he had such acting ability in him. The rest of the actors are just as note worthy.

It's hard to determine when to discuss this subject matter with young kids. Such knowledge can put a damper on their childhood; on the other hand, ignorance is worse.

It's great to review a movie that makes the audience think.

Only my second time commenting on Amazon, but after unexpectedly turning on this movie, I just had to set the record straight on this very depressing yet impossible to look away movie.

First of all, this is an incredibly well done, even if disturbing film. As another reviewer wrote, "what you don't see is the most disturbing." Secondly, without ruining the ending, I believe there are few unanswered questions. The film shows you how the protagonists part ways with Alex and Frank, and the final scene hints at what the future holds for Leslie and Donnie. However, any truly unanswered questions might be intentional. The story fast forwards a few years, but what happened during those years is irrelevant after watching the first half of the movie; you know how they lived their lives for so many years leading up to that point.

As another reviewer said, it would be difficult to re-watch, but a powerful story nonetheless. Ryan Simpkins did an amazing job playing young Leslie.

This movie is a difficult but riveting watch. It's not often you find a movie that you can FEEL through the emotions of the actors, and even more rare to be sucked in by an actress all of 8 years old.

The first part of the movie dealt with the abduction and subsequent lives of two young children in a ring of sex slavery. This was by far the most powerful part of the movie for me. The young girl that played the part of Leslie blew me away. The older girl that played her in the latter part of the movie couldn't measure up.

I gave this movie 4 stars on the strength of the emotion it contained, and the incredible acting in the first half. I 'only' gave this movie 4 stars because the second half was weaker in acting and in story line. There are a lot of holes in this story - too many unanswered questions.

I wholeheartedly recommend this movie for adults, but the content is too extreme for children. Even though there is absolutely no graphic depiction of what is happening whatsoever. It's what you don't see that is the most disturbing.