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Admirable film.

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

i found this movie to be very disturbing...the thought of abduction and child porn and child prostitution to me is sickening...i wish i could unsee the scene where the little girl is bathing and the abductor, tom arnold, puts his hand in the water and enjoys himself...and this next scene, she is left in a hotel room with a man...that poor child...i'd be freaking out, scared and horrified. what kind of parent lets their child be in a movie like this? i wake up in the middle of the night thinking of these scenes and remembering the look on this little girls face...i wish i would have never stumbled upon this movie...ugh, so disturbing!!!!

Damian Harris directs/writes this sad and eye opening drama. At the age of eight, Leslie Whitehead(Ryan Simpkins)is kidnapped by a scheming man named Alex(Tom Arnold)and his young partner Frank(Kevin Zegers). Alex will tell the girl that her parents no longer want her and can have a better life without her. She and another victim named Donnie(Jermaine Scooter Smith)are forced into child prostitution and pornography. The two will try to cope by pretending they are in an imaginary world based on The Jungle Book. After about nine years of horror the two are dumped on the streets. Now Leslie(Gillian Jacobs)and Donnie(Evan Ross) have only each other to depend on. They will survive the streets the best they know how...prostitution. Thanks to a shelter counselor(John Malkovich), Leslie tries to return to her parents. But will this be a success? The teen will wonder if Donnie just disappeared or met mishap. Haunting, sad and disgraceful. The Harris bases GARDEN of the NIGHT on two years of personal research. Arnold is outstanding in the role. Also in the cast: Harold Perrineau, Jeremy Sisto and Landall Goolsby.

This is a good movie. In fact, it's an exceptionally well done movie that tackles an impossibly difficult and even horrific subject and that, as a result, makes it often a very difficult movie to watch. It's not a sob-story happy ending kind of movie, either, so by the time it comes to an end you don't really feel at all uplifted. In fact, you feel kind of worn down, upset - even angry.The subject of the movie is child sexual exploitation. A darker, seedier and more disturbing storyline probably doesn't exist. It revolves around Leslie (played by Ryan Simpkins as a young child and Gillian Jacobs as a teen.) Leslie is kidnapped at the age of 8 and essentially forced into a life of child prostitution. Thankfully, nothing graphic is shown (obviously nothing sexual, and no physical abuse of any kind, really), but just knowing the situation makes your heart bleed for this girl and at times ties your stomach in knots.The kidnapper is played by Tom Arnold. The portrayal of a sick man luring his victim into his clutches and gradually making her more and more dependent on him to the point at which he can take her out in public and she won't try to escape or tell anyone what's going on is truly disturbing. There's no real closure with Arnold's character of Alex, either. Somehow Leslie and her friend Donnie (who was held captive as well) are just all of a sudden on their own. There's no mention of how they got away, or of what happened to Alex.One piece of advice: this seems to me to be a pretty accurate depiction (a psychological one mostly) of children being kidnapped and then sexually exploited. It's filmed mostly from Leslie's point of view, so it is a hard movie, and if you watch a tough movie expecting (and even needing) everything to work out in the end and everybody to live happily ever after then don't watch this. It's not a fairy tale. Not in any way, shape or form. It's dark and disturbing from the first to the last moment. But if you can get through that, it's also a very powerful and well made movie. (8/10)

Drama about San Diego streetwalkers Jacobs and Ross and how they came to be through years of sexual abuse. Brave, disturbing and insightful, yet strangely ceases to be thought-provoking—it pretty much is what it is. Tom Arnold is standout in possibly the best role of his career, not to mention Perrineau pulling the audience into Hell with just one unforgettably disturbing scene. Suffers from the FULL METAL JACKET-effect, where the first act easily tops the second act—and something is askew when the child actors (Simpkins and Smith) are easily stronger than the adult actors playing the same characters (Jacobs and Ross). The romantic undertones between the two leads are interesting, but nonetheless questionable as it distracts and interrupts more important conflicts at hand.**½ (out of four)