During my short stint in LA as an intern, I had the pleasure to work on a little project called Gardens of the Night. Mostly I was making copies, scheduling audition appointments, filming auditions, etc. I did have a chance to read the script and enjoyed it as well. I remember briefly meeting director Damian Harris. But like all internships, this one ended and my interest in the project waned.
3 years later, I stumbled upon the film on Netflix Streaming and chose it as my night's entertainment. The film turned out relatively close to the original. A disturbing, yet realistic portrayal of children taking from their innocent lives and filtered into prostitution rings. Staring Gillian Jacobs prior to her appearance on Community, Tom Arnold, John Malkovich, and Evan Ross this film has enough talent to carry the emotional theme properly.
Gardens of the Night is about Leslie being ripped from her innocent life and placed into captivity by Frank (Arnold) who perfectly plays the perverted captor. Leslie meets Donny, also captured and forced into the terrible lifestyle. As Leslie and Donny age, together they have escaped--somehow--and are now within their mid-teens, now experiencing life as prostitutes alone. Leslie is reunited with her family, and Donny hitchhikes to Florida.
The film offers some subtle cinematographic techniques that are not exactly apparent. Harris's use of a wide angle offers a deformed look, much like their deformed lives. A particular motif used that is relatively intriguing is that of the bath tub. Upon Leslie's capture, Frank gives her a bath. As a teenager, she is briefly a part of a prostitution house where she tries to submerge herself in an attempt to end her life, failing to do so after she has a flashback of the prior bath tub incident with Frank. After she is reunited with her family, she witnesses her family that she barely knows giving her younger sister a bath.
This use of the bath tub primarily juxtaposes the common conception that the bath tub is an innocent time between a parent and their child. Leslie simply doesn't have this experience and is unable to cope with what she missed as a younger girl.
Gardens of the Night is a difficult movie to digest due to its subject matter. The later part of the film has a particular drag to it but offers a down-beat ending, suitable due to the prior foreshadowing.