MovieChat Forums > Gardens of the Night (2008) Discussion > A couple of things I didn't quite get

A couple of things I didn't quite get

posted 14 years ago by missypantne
4 replies | jump to latest

1. When Alex and Frank are loading the kids into the car to escape the cops, who's the old guy on the street watching them? The kids are gagged, struggling and trying to get away, so it doesn't seem like he just didn't see anything weird going on.

2. The scene in the judge's house - were the three girls upstairs his daughters? I'm assuming the one in the ballet outfit was. She looked quite a lot like Leslie (guessing not a coincidence) and was wearing the same outfit...are we to infer that he was using Leslie so that he might be able to control his urges to do those things to his daughter? Or was it just a coincidence that the girls looked alike? And what was the significance of the look that girl was giving Leslie? She almost appeared to be jealous, like she sensed Leslie was her "replacement" somehow.

3. this is a behind the scenes question: I know Ryan Simpkins was given an alternate version of the script so she wouldn't have to deal with the more adult subject matter, and a lot of the more difficult scenes were explained away, but did the directed ever say how they set her up for the "red light bulb" scene? When she's sobbing on the bed, what does she think has just happened?

[–] ARH 14 years ago

1. He knows someething bad is going down, but doesn't care. I believe that was included to show how when people are apathetic about child abuse they help facillitate it.

2. I figured the Judge got Leslie because his daughters were "too old" for him. I thought she was jealous too. That is actually not uncommon of abused children. I think that is why Frank was so mean to Leslie and Donnie too, they were his replacements.

3. He could've just told her to think or something sad like a pet or family member dying.

[–] Cinnyaste 14 years ago

Addendums:

1. He's also a bum and may have suffered the same fate as Leslie and this is what life on the streets looks like in X years, i.e foreshadowing

If not, who's going to believe a bum? And that goes on society making him invisible.

2. Only the oldest. Leslie may be a fill-in until the other sisters, who clearly aren't abused, are older/have their time.

[–] snoho 11 years ago

The judge's daughter was staring at Lesslie because Lesslie was staring at her dress (a dress the judge asked her to wear beforehand).

[–] GuyOnTheLeft 9 years ago

Do you have a cite for the stuff about Ryan Simpkins? I thought she did an amazing job, but I also wondered if (and how) they shielded her from the extremely dark subject matter.

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