BERLIN (Hollywood Reporter) - Dysfunctional families in
dramatic literature date back to “Oedipus Rex,” so if you’re
going to take that route, you’d better have something new to
say.In his film “Fireflies in the Garden,” Dennis Lee comes up
empty. Kids, parents, siblings, an aunt and an estranged wife
all bicker and yell, but the noise cancels itself out. The
movie is one long argument, tiresome and repetitive, that
produces more heat than light. The wonder is that the
first-time writer-director rounded up a cast that includes
Willem Dafoe, Emily Watson, Carrie-Anne Moss and Julia Roberts.It screened at the Berlin International Film Festival out
of competition.The script reportedly knocked around Hollywood for a long
time before Senator Entertainment decided to finance it since
no one saw a market for Lee’s story. That’s still going to be a
problem. Anything starring Roberts stands a chance, but box
office in urban adult venues should be modest. The film
probably will play better as home entertainment.A family gathering in a small university town, presumably
in the Midwest, takes a tragic turn when a car accident injures
family head and professor Charles Taylor (Dafoe) and kills his
wife, Lisa (Roberts). Animosity between Charles and his
novelist son Michael (Ryan Reynolds), who lives in New York,
runs deep, so his mother’s death only exacerbates their
hostility.Most of the family travails stem from the basic fact that
Charles is a self-absorbed, domineering, abusive jerk. Michael
has every reason to dislike him. Indeed, in his just-finished
manuscript, he takes his revenge.His mother’s sister, Jane (Watson), disapproves of
Michael’s literary character assassination but is more absorbed
in calming her son, who blames himself for his aunt’s death. To
add to the nonmerriment, Michael’s estranged and formerly
alcoholic wife, Kelly (Moss), shows up for the funeral.Flashbacks to Michael’s childhood (Cayden Boyd touchingly
plays him as a boy) fill you in on the abuse he suffered and
how no one, not even his mother, could stop Charles from
tormenting his son. Lee’s story purports to be
semi-autobiographical, but these petty family quarrels don’t
play on the screen. Abuse can be terrible to suffer firsthand,
but here it takes on a certain banality. The cause of Charles’
fury at the world is never articulated, nor is it clear why his
wife tolerated so much cruelty from her husband.Michael does make a startling discovery in going through
his mom’s things, which adds a melodramatic note that is never
thoroughly convincing. A resolution, or at least a truce, is
reached at the end that also lacks conviction. It arrives too
easily, and you suspect that if Michael didn’t live in New
York, the truce would be a short-lived.Dafoe never gets a handle on his overbearing character.
Similarly, Roberts spends her rather brief screen time trying
to pacify other people — her husband, her son and then her
sister — without ever getting a chance to define who her
character is. The movie pretty much wastes Watson, and Moss
seems to have dropped in from another movie. Only Reynolds
comes off with some dimension and charm as a guy whose
affability increases with the distance he puts between himself
and his dad.Filming in and around Austin, Lee makes effective use of
his locations and slides between two time periods smoothly. All
tech credits are solid.Cast:Lisa Taylor: Julia RobertsMichael Taylor: Ryan ReynoldsCharles Taylor: Willem DafoeJane Lawrence: Emily WatsonKelly: Carrie-Anne MossRyne: Shannon LucioAddison: Ioan GruffuddScreenwriter-director: Dennis Lee; Producers: Marco Weber,
Vanessa Coifman, Sukee Chew; Executive producers: Jere
Hausfater, Milton Liu; Director of photography: Danny Moder;
Production designer: Robert Pearson; Costume designer: Kelle
Kutsugeras; Editors: Dede Allen, Robert Brakey.Reuters/Hollywood Reporter
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