The Hanging Garden (film)
| The Hanging Garden | |
|---|---|
Promotional poster
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| Directed by | Thom Fitzgerald |
| Produced by |
Thom Fitzgerald Louise Garfield Arnie Gelbart |
| Written by | Thom Fitzgerald |
| Starring |
Chris Leavins Troy Veinotte Sarah Polley Peter MacNeill Seana McKenna |
| Music by | John Roby |
| Cinematography | Daniel Jobin |
| Edited by | Susan Shanks |
| Distributed by | Alliance Releasing |
|
Release date
|
1997 |
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Running time
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91 minutes |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $1,500,000 CAD |
The Hanging Garden is a 1997 British/Canadian movie written and directed by Thom Fitzgerald that is about the duality of life and death and the way seemingly very different choices in life can lead to similar outcomes. The film was shot in Nova Scotia.
25-year-old Sweet William (Chris Leavins) returns to his parents' house in rural Nova Scotia after ten years of absence to attend the wedding of his sister Rosemary (Kerry Fox). It is revealed that he is gay and in the closet. He was obese teenager (played by Troy Veinotte), who was caught having sex with his closeted bisexual friend Fletcher (Joel Keller) in the garden by his senile grandmother Grace when he was 15; Rosemary is marrying Fletcher.
As a consequence of the ensuing rejection, particularly by his alcoholic father (Peter MacNeill), Sweet William had the choice of either running away to live in a big city far away from the family or end his life by hanging himself from a tree in the garden.
In the movie, both the alive, now slender and self-assured Sweet William and the obese, suffocated teenage Sweet William, hanging as a fresh corpse in the garden, are present and interacting. In the version of reality where Sweet William dies, his family members cannot shed their memories of his death and carry on with their lives, whereas in the other version Sweet William is haunted by memories of his father's bouts of violence and is unable to reconcile with him.
As well, a new family member, Violet (Christine Dunsworth) is subsequently revealed to have been fathered by Sweet William, from an incident when Sweet William's mother (Seana McKenna) took him to a prostitute in an attempt to "cure" his homosexuality.
The cast also includes Sarah Polley, Joan Orenstein, Heather Rankin and a cameo appearance by Ashley MacIsaac.
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