Fireflies in the Garden (2008)
Director:
Dennis Lee
Tagline:
« Having a son is not the same as being a father. »
Actors:
Michael Taylor
Charles Taylor
Jane Lawrence
Kelly
Lisa Taylor
Genre:
Drama
Rating:
(14’170 votes)
(14’170 votes)
Quotes:
« Jimmy: [to Michael] Gotta tell you my kids love it here. Christopher's in your old room and Leslie here is in Ryne's.
»
[turns to Leslie]
« Jimmy: Say hello to your cousin.
»
« Michael: [to Leslie, when she doesn't say anything] You're short.
»
« Jimmy: [to Michael] Yeah guest room's upstairs, second door on the right, but I guess you know that because uh this is your home.
»
« Leslie: Uncle Charlie said it's our home now.
»
« Jimmy: You're right honey, it is our home now. But um, Michael grew up here so… it's his home, too.
»
« Leslie: But it's our home.
»
« Jimmy: [picks Leslie up] What do you say we go catch some more of that ball game, huh?
»
[to Michael as he starts walking]
« Jimmy: If you need anything let me know.
»
« Michael: Okay.
»
« Jimmy: [stops and turns back to Michael] Hey this… this is great, you know… It's good to…
»
« Michael: Yeah you too.
»
[Mouths to Leslie after Jimmy turns back around]
« Michael: It's MY home.
»
« Michael: [sits down near Christopher on the roof] I love what you've done with the room.
»
[lights a cigarette]
« Michael: I used to come out here a lot when I was grounded.
»
« Christopher: [sniffing because he was crying] Mom told me you were always getting in trouble.
»
« Michael: She should talk.
»
« Christopher: [crossly] What's that supposed to mean?
»
« Michael: Before your mother was a mom, she was my best friend.
»
« Christopher: [sarcastically] You guys have tea parties together?
»
« Michael: Yeah, occasionally. Your mother taught me everything I shouldn't know, smartass.
»
« Christopher: Like how to write like a chick?
»
« Michael: Oh. That's funny. It's nice to see your balls finally dropped, Christopher.
»
[looks away for a second]
« Michael: No, she taught me the art of fishing.
»
« Christopher: Fishing?
»
« Michael: [dragging from his cigarette] Mm-hmm.
»
« Christopher: Fishing is boring.
»
« Michael: Not the way we used to do it, it wasn't.
»
« Christopher: Whatever.
»
« Michael: You want me to show you?
»
« Leslie: [Concerned about her missing 11-year-old big brother] You think they're going to find Christopher?
»
« Michael: God, I hope not.
»
Trailer:
Theatrical Version
Runtime:99 minutes
Plots:
The Taylor family is devastated by an accident that takes place on the day their matriarch is due to graduate from college — decades after leaving to raise her children.
A family with an abusive father, a sensitive son, and a mother out of her depth: we see them when Michael is about 12 and when he’s in his 30’s, a writer of romance novels, going home for his mother and sister’s college graduations. We go back and forth between the two periods: when Michael is a boy, the pressure builds to the point when the thin thread keeping them as a family threatens to break, and there’s a fight. During Michael’s trip home, there’s an unexpected death which prolongs his stay and brings to the light his relationship with his father, his aunt, and her young children. Michael’s estranged wife joins them for the funeral.
Michael Taylor is a New York based author of romance novels. The bend toward what is generally regarded as a female genre may be due to the strong relationship he has with his mother, Lisa Taylor, and in large part a measure of survival against his tyrannical father, English professor Charles Taylor. The problems he has with his father stem from as far back as childhood, when he would do things purposefully to set his father off, knowing that some sort of retribution would be coming. Michael also has a strong relationship with his only slightly older aunt, Lisa’s sister Jane, who lived with them one summer, the year Michael’s sister Ryne was born. Michael and Jane’s bond was also a joint front, similarly subversive, against Charles. Michael has divorced his wife Kelly, something he has told no one in the family except Jane. Michael’s trip home to celebrate Lisa and Ryne’s graduation from college changes due to unexpected circumstances which add an extra dimension to Michael’s confusion about his feelings toward his family. Michael’s latest book, an exposé of the family masquerading as fiction and meant as a means to cleanse himself from his past, is currently sitting with the publisher, although he has given Jane an advance copy of the manuscript. His mother, the glue that held the family together, kept many of the issues of the family solely to herself. However, Michael stumbles across some materials among his mother’s belongings that may provide a road to reconciliation, and not only with Charles.
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