User Reviews

We saw the film in its original release. Not having seen it since then, we decided to take another view the other night, as it was a haunting piece of film-making. Thom Fitzgerald directs his own material about a family's disintegration amid an internal crisis.

The film shows a family in three different epochs of their lives. The father, Whiskey Mac and his wife, Iris, are seen in their suburban home where they are raising two children. The segments are divided into chapters and all take their names from flowers and herbs.

The main conflict in the film is within Sweet William, who as a teen ager is haunted by his latent homosexuality. The object of his interest is Fletcher, the school friend who isn't at all repulsed by William's advances, which are obvious. When they are caught in the act by the zealous grandmother, the family goes to pieces. Sweet William, in shame, hangs himself from a tree in the garden. This, we realize is only a symbolic way to show that like his own mother, Iris, both have fled the home in search of a more normal life. While Sweet Williams returns, completely transformed into a slender man, the mother is never heard of.

The message of the film seems to be how a family secret becomes the breaking point and its demise. Whiskey Mac sees the hanging figure of his teen aged son right in the middle of the garden. It's a painful reminder that he has lost him. Rosemary ends up marrying Fletcher, who seems to be game for a sexual encounter with the present William.

Mr. Fitzgerald has guided his excellent casts into giving performances that are true to life. Peter MacMeill, Kerry Fox, Chris Leavins, Troy Veinoitte, Seana McKenna, Sarah Polley, and the rest, show an understanding for the material.

While this is a somewhat difficult film to sit through, Mr. Fitzgerald film deserves to be seen.

Death indeed takes many forms, and Thom Fitzgerald presents one of them here in a very dramatic way. William comes home ten years after his, but it was of course not an actual death, rather the termination of a life of obesity, ridicule and insecurity. Fletcher's rejection, and the ensuing small-town gossip, are what finally caused him to flee to the big city and cut off all communication with family and friends. He returns, reborn as a slim, handsome urbanite, who will not be satisfied until that rejection is reversed.

There is a lot of confusion among viewers of this film regarding the corpse that appears to be hanging in the garden. While at least three family members recognize it, it has never physically existed. William has survived the suicide attempt (rather than give in, he is still struggling when the scene ends), and is thus alive ten years later. What hangs from the tree is the broken spirit of a very troubled boy--and the entity that reveals the undercurrent of the plot.

Though in appearance a mature adult, William behaves at Rosemary's wedding as if he were trying to experience the childhood he missed. He is late for the ceremony, is dancing with his grandmother in her attic room while he is supposed to be with the rest of the wedding party, and hides under a table during the reception so he can throw flower petals onto the grass for guests to slip on. The pleasures of youth are abruptly halted when he must take care of his drunken father and then help organize a search for his missing mother. Compounding the difficulties are visions of himself as a young boy, using food to assuage hurt feelings, and of course the hanging `corpse.'

Later, as both of them envision the corpse, Rosemary reveals to William that she opted to hold her wedding in the garden so as to remember her brother as he `left,' rather than as he `came back.' Although she doesn't want to let go of the overweight, `Sweet William,' the adult will have no part of it and sees his chance to put it all to rest when Fletcher comes on to him down on the dock, the site of an earlier affectionate encounter. After confirming that he holds great attraction over his brother-in-law, William fakes an asthma attack (he has no problem running up the hill), and goes to bury the corpse. Having given up on reliving the past in a more pleasant way, he opts for putting it to rest so he can start anew.

Whiskey Mac, like Rosemary, wishes to hold on to the boy he knew ten years ago. It is revealed that he, too, has sensed the corpse when William tells him he has buried it. Devastated, the father tries to exhume it, but the son will not permit him. Of course no physical remains would appear, as none exist, but William doesn't want his father going through the motions of digging up what should be left in place. As George adamantly stated to Martha in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, the boy is `dead' and there is no use bringing him up again.

I think what I disliked the most about this film was simply the fact that I didn't like ANYBODY in it...not really. The father is a bully and a drunk. The mother is ineffectual, and doesn't even stand up for her children when they are being badly treated or even hit by her husband.she spends her time pursing her lips or waving her arms in frustration. The sister is vulgar as hell and is so completely dislikable in her opening wedding preparations scenes that it is difficult to warm to her later, although she ALMOST managed to break through my reserve for her in a few later scenes, mainly when she is being loving and protective of her older brother. The grandmother seems to be played on two notes only - sweetly senile or bossily mean, convulsed with religious intolerance. The youngest sister/daughter is just a rude, uncontrollable brat. And "Sweet William" is ...well, so sweet that he seems to more or less forgive everyone and never get really mad at any of what is going on around him. The only person in the entire film that I could sort of warm to was Fletcher - who is luckily not a part of this family and actually seems human and decent, if a bit selfish.

Now, I have seen dysfunctional families before, on and off screen - but here there is no indication that anyone is capable of simply being "normal" for even two minutes. Except for William, every one of them is murderously mean, nasty, muck-mouthed, intense and twitchy in all situations. ALL THE TIME! In the end, they come across as cardboard cut-outs rather than real people, every one of them (except William and Fletcher) overacting like crazy.

There were a few moments in the film that were touching and/or calm, but they were few and far between. In real life I would try and get away from these people as fast as I could. In other words, watching this film is an exercise in masochism. Thanks, but no thanks.

Ten times better -if you are into Canadian film - is C.R.A.Z.Y... a film with real people, real performances, humour and other emotions besides the "dramatic" ones... and a much surer director's hand. It will make up for the ennui and gruesomeness of The Hanging Garden.

Sweet William (Chris Leavins) returns to his family's house after being gone for 10 years. He came at the request of his sister (Kerry Fox) who is getting married. He left home because he was gay and couldn't deal with his family's HEAVY dysfunction. While back home he starts to flashback to his childhood...and begins to realize some unpleasant things about himself and his family.

This is basically yet another movie about a dysfunctional family...but this is a very good one. It's well-done (on next to no budget) and has some beautiful (if obvious) symbolism using flowers and nature. The story also took some unexpected turns I didn't see coming. Also the gay themes are handled very well and explicitly--that may bother some people. The acting is superb all the way through--Leavins and Fox are just incredible. And it DOES have a happy ending which I didn't really believe for one second--but it still works.

My only complaints--there's virtual non-stop swearing through the movie, and can we have just ONE movie about a dysfunctional family that DOESN'T have incest? Also look for a young Sarah Polley in a small role. I give it an 8.

As a gay Canadian, I am embarrassed to confess that I had not heard of "The Hanging Garden" until it was broadcast by CBC (with all the potty words). Is it Babylon with the exile of the Jews i.e. a second Garden of Eden or the suicide of a troubled youth? In any event, it follows the dynamics of a family under stress - a wedding and everything that is raised when family members congregate after a long separation.

I salute the performance of Troy Veinotte who, like a meteorite, lights up the screen as the young Sweet William and disappears from view much as the young actors of "Who Has Seen the Wind" The most complex character is Fletcher, brilliantly played by Joel S. Keller. How can he marry Sweet William's sister after his youthful flirtations with Sweet William?

What is up with this film? So he is hanging in the garden, but is he dead or what? He tried to kill himself, because of being gay or dysfunctional, which one? Or did his dysfunction die when he left? Yikes I am so haunted by this movie and the performance of the young actor, that played him as a teen, was remarkable. I have not seen many movies from Canada and this was really good albeit confusing to me!! Did that make sense? Part of the movie seemed cut-up--I saw it on Cinemax but I guess they could have shown an edited version.It was weird when Fletcher married the sister, is that because he could not have Willie? And the little girl was the daughter of Willie and the prostitute? Wow, can you imagine that happening to a kid, he didn't want to go to her, in the first place. The grandmother's portrayal was really interesting. Was she really crazy or just like that because of the heavy duty dysfunction, in the house, for all those years?