Gardens of the Night

Tough, not sure how else to summarize
As a parent, I understand the importance of the content regarding children being kidnapped domestically and ending up lost in the sex/slave rings, but man this was a difficult watch. Even harder than Holly (also trailered on this DVD).

The story follows a young, upper-middle class girl (played incredibly by Ryan Simpkins, who coincidentally blew me away with her brief adult-style performance in Balls Out) as she is lured by a pedophile into an irreversible life of long term abuse and abandonment. The film flashes between her youth and later adult existence on the streets. No part of this topic is easy to watch, but everyone plays their roles adequately. Tom Arnold is absolutely scary as the pedophile, he was completely believable to the extreme.

The video and sound quality were fine, and the supplements cover the array of related topics. The deleted scenes were thankfully cut out (even more graphic), but it did show the obvious confusion towards the end of the...

Gardens of the Night
This movie was done very well. It opens your eyes to the adverse effect that young kids go through who are abducted from their family and friends. Children are not as tune to deception of people that they are easily persuaded by strangers to follow them. All parents should take the time and talk to their kids. Everyone is a stranger and be careful if it is someone you don't know that is trying to be nice to you.

All of the actors in this movie did an excellent job.

great movie, but leaves questions unanswered
I gave this movie 5 stars because of the phenomenal acting. You will cry when you watch it. It's the type of film that is very difficult to watch, but you can't stop watching it. The questions I have are: What happened to Alex and Frank and how did Leslie and Donnie get away from them? Does Leslie ever find Donnie? And it would have been nice to see Leslie and Donnie's lives as adults. Despite the lack of details, it was a great independent movie. I'm not sure it's worth buying, because you will most likely only watch it once.

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