Gardens of the Night (2008)
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50% of critics liked it
(14 reviews) -
67% of users liked it
(1,428 ratings)
Abducted by two men and forced into child prostitution when she was just eight years old, a homeless San Diego street teen is finally reunited with her family only to find that the traumas of the past may have scarred her for life. Leslie (Ryan Simpkins) was walking to school when her neighbors Alex… More Abducted by two men and forced into child prostitution when she was just eight years old, a homeless San Diego street teen is finally reunited with her family only to find that the traumas of the past may have scarred her for life. Leslie (Ryan Simpkins) was walking to school when her neighbors Alex (Tom Arnold) and Frank (Kevin Zegers) pulled up alongside her and asked for help finding their missing dog. After scouring the neighborhood with the young girl to no avail, the men offer Leslie a ride so she won't be late for school. Along the way, the men tell Leslie that they work for her father. After school, Leslie is surprised to find the two men waiting to drive her home. Claiming that her parents have been called away on urgent business, Alex and Frank coerce Leslie into the car and give her a drink. Later, after dozing off in the backseat, Leslie awakens in a tiny bedroom with eight-year-old Donnie. Like Leslie, Donnie has been drugged and kidnapped. Donnie is led to believe that his parents have sold him for drugs, while Leslie is told that her parents want nothing to do with her anymore. Now, as the two innocent children are forced into prostitution, they use their imaginations to escape into a wondrous world of light where anything is possible.Years later, Leslie and Donnie are struggling to rebuild their lives on the streets of San Diego. Donnie is deeply in love with Leslie, but Leslie's perception of love has been completely destroyed by her harrowing experience. One day, Leslie walks into a children's shelter and begins the painful process of reconnecting with the past. Though she is soon reunited with her parents, everything is different now, and it gradually becomes apparent that any hope she had for a normal life evaporated the fateful day she placed her trust in two monstrous strangers. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
- Directed By
- Damian Harris
- Written By
- Damian Harris
- Genres
- Drama
R,
- In Theaters
- Nov 7, 2008 Wide
- Studio
- City Lights
Critic Reviews
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Mark Olsen, Los Angeles Times
Do these heartbreaking stories exist in the real world? Yes, yes, they do. Does dramatizing these stories with nothing to add except a certain cruel wallowing in the existence of unspeakable human depravity serve any real purpose? No, no, it does not.
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Lou Lumenick, New York Post
Writer-director Jared Harris (and actor and son of the late Richard Harris) claims to have spent 10 years researching this sordid milieu, yet, for all the detail, it ends up playing like an especially lurid '80s TV movie.
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Stephen Holden, New York Times
Gardens of the Night is a harrowing story of kidnapping and forced child prostitution that conjures a world entirely populated by predators and prey.
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Rex Reed, New York Observer
Good acting and sincere direction by Damian Harris act as beacons to light the haunting corridors of an underworld spook house.
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Stephen Garrett, Time Out New York
Ferociously queasy-making for its first half before flatlining into banality.
See more critic ratings and reviews on Rotten Tomatoes
Fresh (60% or more critics rated the movie positively)
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Cast
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Gillian Jacobs
as Leslie
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Evan Ross
as Donnie
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Ryan Simpkins
as Young Leslie
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Jermaine Scooter Smith
as Young Donnie
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Tom Arnold
as Alex
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Kevin Zegers
as Frank
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John Malkovich
as Michael
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Carlie Westerman
as Monica
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Kyle Gallner
as Ratboy
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Shiloh Fernandez
as Cooper
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Harold Perrineau Jr.
as Orlando
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Jeremy Sisto
as Jimmy
- Alice Lo
- Cornelia Guest
- Raynold Gideon
