The Hanging Garden (1997)

Director:

Thom Fitzgerald

Writer:

Thom Fitzgerald (writer)

Release Date:

7 November 1997 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Romance

Tagline:

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

Plot:

William, a once obese and troubled teen, goes back to his family's home after being gone, without word...

Plot Keywords:

Wedding | Gay | Sex | Garden | Dancer

Awards:

20 wins & 10 nominations

Cast

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

Also Known As:

Le jardin suspendu (Canada: French title)

MPAA:

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

Runtime:

91 min

Country:

UK | Canada

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Australia:MA | Finland:K-16 | Spain:13 | Sweden:15 | UK:15 | USA:R

Filming Locations:

Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, Canada

Company:

Alliance Communications Corporation

Quotes:

Grace: [sending her grandchildren off to a school dance. To granddaughter Rosemary.] You got pockets? You carrying your protection with you?
Teen Rosemary: What?!
Grace: Started when your father was young. Every party dress had to have pockets.
[fetches something from her chest-of-drawers.]
Grace: Now ... Your hands. These'll keep you safe.
[lowers a rosary into Rosemary's open hands.]
Grace: Now, you feel some of that ... that hocus-pocus comin' into your body ... you don't have to worry.

Movie Connections:

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

A surreal fabric of past and present

The Hanging garden is one of those fine metaphors about familial existence, self explanation, and coping with a certain kind of sexuality in a community which will have none of it. It's central character, a man who returns home after years away, seems out of place in such a crude and rugged environment as the East Coast. He must, in a certain kind of mindset, face what he was, and try to bury that past for good. His struggle, one of growing to realize what has happened and how he has changed, leads him on a bizarre odyssey of acceptance and growth. The rest of his family may seem somewhat rude and unkempt, but keep in mind that people are pretty much this way in the Martimes at any right. A fine film, especially by Canadian standards.