rosiespark (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
rosiespark) wrote2007-10-14 12:37 am
rosiespark) wrote2007-10-14 12:37 am
Entry tags:
Angsty Canadian film FTW!
I've just watched Flower and Garnet as part of my compulsion to watch everything that Callum Keith Rennie has even been in. Which means that yes, I've watched a couple of stinkers. This wasn't one of them.
It made my chest ache, and I had my fingers pressed against my mouth for at least half of it. I was almost completely unspoiled, for which I'm thankful! Callum was wonderful as the children's dad - he did a great job of portraying a character you could feel for without making him too sympathetic, which would have been a cheap shot and I think would have undermined the terrible effects of his own emotional isolation on his son. And Colin Roberts deserves a special mention for his role as Garnet. The despair and helplessness of a neglected eight-year old who picks up many more of the undercurrents than anyone around him realises - he was heartbreaking.
I loved that I really couldn't predict what was going to happen. I had a real fear that Garnet was either going to shoot himself again, but fatally this time, or that he was going to kill his father. I cried when Ed said "I'm sorry" and finally hugged his son. And then I smiled through my tears at the ending: understated but cautiously hopeful, and all the more powerful for its restraint.
I'm very very glad I watched it.
It made my chest ache, and I had my fingers pressed against my mouth for at least half of it. I was almost completely unspoiled, for which I'm thankful! Callum was wonderful as the children's dad - he did a great job of portraying a character you could feel for without making him too sympathetic, which would have been a cheap shot and I think would have undermined the terrible effects of his own emotional isolation on his son. And Colin Roberts deserves a special mention for his role as Garnet. The despair and helplessness of a neglected eight-year old who picks up many more of the undercurrents than anyone around him realises - he was heartbreaking.
I loved that I really couldn't predict what was going to happen. I had a real fear that Garnet was either going to shoot himself again, but fatally this time, or that he was going to kill his father. I cried when Ed said "I'm sorry" and finally hugged his son. And then I smiled through my tears at the ending: understated but cautiously hopeful, and all the more powerful for its restraint.
I'm very very glad I watched it.