The Hanging Garden (1997)

William, a once obese and depressed adolescent, is able to move past his teenage years when he moves to the city and comes out as being gay. When he returns home though, he can't cope with his memories.

Director:

Thom Fitzgerald

Writer:

Thom Fitzgerald

Stars:

Chris Leavins, Kerry Fox, Ian Parsons

21 wins & 14 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Ian Parsons	...	Little Sweet William
Peter MacNeill	...	Whiskey Mac
Troy Veinotte	...	Teen Sweet William
Kerry Fox	...	Rosemary
Mark Austin	...	Preacher
Joel Keller	...	Fletcher (as Joel S. Keller)
Heather Rankin	...	Black-Eyed Susan
Christine Dunsworth	...	Violet
Seana McKenna	...	Iris
Joan Orenstein	...	Grace
Chris Leavins	...	Sweet William
Ashley MacIsaac	...	Basil
Jocelyn Cunningham	...	Laurel
Jim Faraday	...	Mr. MacDougal
Sarah Polley	...	Teen Rosemary

Storyline

William, a once obese and troubled teen, goes back to his family's home after being gone, without word, for ten years and finds it (and his family) haunted with his past. He had moved to the city and become a fit, well-adjusted gay man, but during his visit home, he becomes unhinged as the newly remembered reasons for his miserable adolescence come to life in each of their presents.

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Plot Keywords:

gay | abusive father | wedding ceremony | sex lesson from prostitute | child abuse | 

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Taglines:

It's hard to go home... ten years after your death.

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Genres:

Drama | Romance

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for strong sexuality, language, and a scene of a hanging, and some teen drug use

Did You Know?

Trivia

The film won the best Canadian feature award at TIFF.

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Quotes

Teen Rosemary: [to her brother William:] Could you get dressed, Willie, I wanna get out of here.
Grace: Where ya goin'?
Teen Sweet William: There's a stupid dance at school.
Grace: You goin' to a dance? Oh, dear God in heaven!
[to granddaughter Rosemary]
Grace: Now, you know to count to six?
Teen Rosemary: What?
Grace: If you're gonna kiss a boy, you got to count to six while you're doin' it. And then stop! After six it's a sin.

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Connections

Featured in Weird Sex and Snowshoes: A Trek Through the Canadian Cinematic Psyche (2004)

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Soundtracks

Petals in a Stream
Written by John Roby
Performed by Holly Cole
© 1997 Roby Music/Triptych Media Publishing

User Reviews

Hanging Garden is a small, intensely felt film abo...

Hanging Garden is a small, intensely felt film about a family in tatters and a son whose own problems are eclipsed until he does something he can't take back. Given the film's major conceit is a breach in family fabric that can't be woven back in, magic realism is an applicable term--but only so if shot through the caustic self-wounding humour of the Maritimes, where I lived for six years. If this seems dour, then consider the take-off marriage sequence that opens the film: drunkeness, homoeroticism, Celtic music madness and four-dozen f-words. This film is a gorgeous if painful tribute to growing up in a remove that already seems past its age, in an ocean playground whose garden has gone to seed. This film was ranked, and fairly, as the best Canadian film of 1997 by the Jay Stone of the Globe & Mail (Canada's national newspaper), and if that makes Americans laugh, then consider this is a ranking ahead of Sweet Hereafter, which only made it to the Best Director Oscar Nomination and Cannes Recognition for Atom Egoyan and was also Roger Ebert's #2 film of the year. Adulations all around are deserving for this home-grown production. The film only suffers from inexperience with some actors and having to come up with a conclusion for a tale that can't logically have one. And the parents are excellent in it too, especially the mum. At the singular, crucial sequence of the film all the elements of the film - colour, symbolism, lamentation and ladyslipperknots - fuse in breathtaking splendor, and I mean so in the inhaled gasp that graces the east coast 'yes '. It still stuns me in memoriam. Four Stars * * * *

Details

Official Sites:

MGM

Country:

Canada UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

7 November 1997 (USA)

Also Known As:

The Hanging Garden

Filming Locations:

Nova Scotia, Canada

Box Office

Budget:

CAD1,500,000 (estimated)

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$24,909

Company Credits

Production Co:

Alliance Communications Corporation, Canadian Film or Video Production Tax Credit (CPTC), Channel Four Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

91 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1