Film Critique
The movie, Gardens of the Night was directed by Damian Harris. He was also the writer and the producer of the film. The movie was released in 2007 and is considered to be a drama. The full cast includes a large group of actors and actresses. The cast is as follows: Jeremy Sisto—Jimmy, Evan Ross—Donnie, Peta Wilson—Sarah, Tom Arnold—Alex, Kyle Gallner—Ratboy, Harold Perrineau—Orlando, Evan Peters—Rachel/Brian, Kevin Zegers—Frank, John Malkovich—Michael, Alex Solowitz—Mohawk, Gillian Jacobs—Leslie, Ty Simpkins—Dylan Whitehead, Ryan Simpkins—Young Leslie, and Raphael Sbarge—Mr.
Whitehead. The film was about a little girl (young Leslie) who was kidnapped by a man (Alex) and his accomplice (Jimmy). These two men chose to kidnap the child in order to sell her into sexual slavery. The little girl is told that her parents wanted her to be with him and that they were unable to take care of her any longer. The little girl is raised to believe that her parents no longer wanted her as Alex continuously tells her that there are no reasons for her to not be with him.
The odd thing about this movie was that Alex and Jimmy neither one ever actually partake in sexual relationships with Leslie or the other child that they had kidnapped Donnie. The movie looks at the relationship between Leslie and Donnie as the children are not educated and taken to school and basically holed up in a small bedroom their whole lives until they become to old to sell in child sex slavery at which point they are tossed out to the streets. These young adults then learn to fend on their own.
They are forced to have to learn how to survive on the streets. This survival skills cause them to do things that they don’t always consider to be the best or most moral. They are forced to steal, prostitute and even sell others to the other people living on the streets in order to survive. Leslie is then convinced by another street member, violent pimp named Orlando, to turn a girl out to him to be on the streets. The girl is a young girl and Leslie works her way into a homeless shelter in order to befriend the young girl and convince her to come with her.
Once Leslie has done this she realizes the error of her ways and runs away with the girl to return her to homeless shelter. It is then that many of the people from the street come looking for her as the young girl would have made them a lot of money. A counselor at the homeless shelter is very compassionate about his job and has worked with Leslie. This man known as Michael in the film figures out who Leslie really is. It is then that it is discovered to Leslie that she was kidnapped and that her parents had really wanted her all along.
Leslie eventually ends up meeting her parents and is able to go and live with them. She goes but at the end of the movie leaves her parents home to return to the streets. The psychological interpretation of the term could be looked at in the role of Leslie. She is a child who lives in a happy home and is growing up with many of the priviledges that other children do not have. She is then kidnapped by a man who psychologically abuses her and tells her that her parents no longer want her and that her parents wanted her to be with him.
He builds her trust by acting like a hero and as a compassionate person. He also manipulates her by talking about how he doesn’t want to replace her father but instead that he wants to be like an uncle. He talks her through many difficult things through kindness and acting in a kind manner. He is using this as a way of psychologically portraying himself as a good guy that wants to protect her and as someone who really does care about her when she has not been cared about by anyone else. As an adult Leslie could be profiled from the psychological aspect as a typical abused victim.
She even starts to victimize another young girl in the same way that she was victimized. What clicks in her is when she uses a line that the abuser had used on her when she experienced her first sexual relation with an adult man. Alex had looked at Leslie and told her that it “was like a caterpillar shedding it’s skin to be a butterfly and that it had to hurt. ” When Leslie says this same line to the other young girl, she awakens to what she is becoming and ends up feeling remorse and sending the young girl back to the homeless shelter.
She tells the young girl that she was lying to her. The last part of the movie deals with Leslie being reunited with her family. It is during this part of the movie where Leslie seems to realize what all was taken from her by Alex. She ends up leaving her parents home and is unable to stay there. This could be answered as a psychological aspect. The answer would be that Leslie was unable to deal with the vast amount of emotions and feelings that she had knowing that she had good parents all along that wanted. Also she no longer has the feelings that she belongs in this family.
The family seems to be a perfect picture of the idealized American life and through it appears that Leslie realizes just how messed up she really is from all of the abuse and other occurrences that happened to her as a child. This would mean that Leslie left her parents home when she felt that she could not function as a part of their family. It would appear that it was harder for Leslie to realize how good her life could have been than to have thought that her parents abandoned her. This movie shows the tragic side of child kidnapping and child sex slavery.
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