Gardens of the Night

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... Read more

This was a pretty depressing movie to me. The point was to see what was happening to the girl with being kidnapped and hopeful for a good ending. It was hoping for justice. I am not sure what the motive was behind making this. It is good in a way to see what a child molester may do. This was a bit unrealistic. The little girl was a good actress, the bigger girl who played her not so good. They didn't try to escape too much. Later she goes to a shelter. John Malkovich playing the worker was good. She herself descends into the depths of darkness to get another girl. This is reversed by her and so for the movie. I don't really like Tom Arnold. She finally goes home but then it is still not a happy ending. I felt like kind of a voyeur watching it. Some people might like it. The ones on Yahoo movies seem to like it. I wanted to see what Roger Ebert had to say as I go by him but he didn't review it.

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.

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.