The
family dynamics are like something out of Osage
County and the backdrop has a bit of Summer
of Sam’s spirit, but nobody can get too worked up on a lazy summer day like
this. Maybe that is part of the problem. A West German family gathers for what
could be their last summer getaway on the wild, sprawling property of their
late matriarch, while a child murderer remains on the loose in Sonya Maria Kröner’s
The Garden (trailer here), which screens
during this year’s KINO!: Festival of German Films in New York.
Just
what will happen to the garden and the assorted summer cottages now is a very
pertinent question. Ilse was Grandma Sophie’s caretaker and is now presumed to
control the property. There are several hushed conversations about a potential
sale, but they are quickly broken off whenever younger generations wander within
earshot. Of course, Eva, the resentful wife of her grown grandson Bernd is
convinced they will be swindled out of their share of the inheritance by his
better-loved sister, Gitti. However, Gitti has plenty of her own problems, including
a disinterested ex-husband. To make matters worse, her daughter blames her for the
father’s absence.
Over
the course of a late summer day, all the family resentments will slip out, but
they never boil over. Kröner also does everything possible to cast suspicion on
a creepy neighbor, short of tacking a note to his door that says “out killing
children—back soon.” She juggles an awful lot of balls in the air, but none of
them pay-off individually or add up to much collectively. In fact, her strategy
of keeping most of the big drama off-screen gets hair-pullingly frustrating in
the third act.
Nevertheless,
as a mood piece and an accomplishment in mise-en-scène, Garden is quite impressive. All the textures and color schemes truly
scream early 1970s. Kröner also totally nails the lazy, hazy,
slightly-over-heated-in-a-Mersault-from-The-Stranger
kind of way vibe. Plus, the cast is totally believable, especially Laura Tonke
and Mavie Hörbiger as Eva and Gitti, the battling sisters-in-law. However, as
you watch Garden it is hard to shake
the feeling that there is a real movie going on in the room next door, but we
can only see the players making their entrances and exits.
