Numerootno
A story that's too fascinating to pass by...
Bea Swanson
This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.
Derrick Gibbons
An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.
jlthornb51
Any review of this film must begin with pointing out the most outstanding performance and real reason for seeing it. Ms. Emily Watson gives a performance of overwhelming power, of such beauty, subtlety, and artistic perfection that it defies description. Watson has a talent, humanity, and artistry that goes beyond all words. In Fireflies in the Garden it is one of compassion, love, and a uniquely smoldering sexuality that belongs to Emily Watson alone. There are many superb actresses working in film today but only one continues to burn her being into the very soul of audiences with one performance after another.
Joe Day
Another film in the genre that has become so popular of late.When did it become so fashionable to depict strong, masculine, authoritative fathers as such villains?Here you have a loving family headed by the father. From all views, they seem well-provided for, etc. But there is a problem: the father is played as a tyrant just because he has the (apparently misguided) idea that boys need a strong father figure. We don't know if the son is overly "sensitive" or not but it would not be a surprise seeing as how dad's every move is questioned by any clucking hen within screaming distance.The son grows up and we think is married but that the marriage is on the rocks or may even be over. Who knows? I kept waiting for him to come out of the closet or something.Anyway, in the end we realize, as adults should (but few do) that we may not always rely on our perceptions as children. In hindsight and with a bit of help (such as home movies) we can see that it was not all bad, that my dad DID love me.And that at some point, mom should butt out with the criticizing dad in front of the kids.
juneebuggy
Jeez Willem Dafoe is such a bastard in this, I really (really) hated him here. Decent movie with a great cast, giving great performances in a dysfunctional family drama.For the most part the plot follows 'Michael' (Ryan Reynolds) flip-flopping back and forth between him at the age of 12 and at 30 following the unexpected death of a family member and just before he publishes a memoir that will reveal painful family secrets.Reynolds does a good job as Michael, he's pretty messed up after being raised (tortured) by an abusive, manipulative father. I enjoyed the entire cast as they muddle through tragedy but was left frustrated by how many of the "secrets" were never revealed -I had questions left unanswered. And in no way had Dafoe's character redeemed himself in the end, which I think we were meant to assume. 9/8/14
hduck1
I agree with others who did not like the film. It was like watching a jigsaw puzzle being put together without a picture of the whole scene. It's not that the acting was bad in my opinion, but there was no reason to make the story so difficult to follow. It wasn't until I had finished watching the show that I looked at commentaries, and at IMDb to find out who was who, and who was related to whom, and by what connection.OK, we all have a past and many of us have complaints about our parents, but most of us do not air them, because we are far from perfect ourselves. We also learn as we grow older (hopefully), and our misbehavior toward our children was not with the intention of hurting them -- mostly it was because of personal anxieties about life, and how to protect our children from many destructive mistakes.By contrast to this movie about family dysfunction, and the processes of remembering the past, another screenplay which uses some of the same techniques, and which is possibly my favorite teleplay of all time is the original version of Dennis Potter's The Singing Detective. Never have I seen a screenplay so perfectly written and directed and cast and acted as this one. It is a marvel, and it contains a lot of ironic humor too.The Robert Frost poem of the same name is a very good analogy. There are some few who are true stars, and there ore others who would like to be stars but are like the fireflies. Their little lights may appear momentarily to light the night sky, but they do not last long.
