The People Garden

If you're expecting a straight up mystery thriller or horror film you'll be disappointed. However, if you keep an open mind you will be rewarded with a poignant & romantic story about moving on.

Failing actress Sweetpea (Dree Hemingway) travels to a music video shoot in rural Japan to break up with her neglectful rock star boyfriend (Francois Arnaud). Arriving at the remote location, she discovers he's gone missing. Is he just trying to avoid her? OR is there something more malevolent behind his disappearance? Looking like a Project Runway Jake Gittes, Sweetpea teams up with local forest warden Mak (Jai West), who has his own hidden agenda, to find her lost love. As the story meanders around the creepy forest, Sweetpea slowly realizes solving her boyfriend's missing persons case isn't the point. She's a typically self-obsessed young woman who can't see the forest from the trees. All the clues are there yet she remains oblivious to their meaning. Is she just protecting herself from the hard truth?

This is a finely crafted, assuredly directed film where all the small parts elegantly come together. The acting is great all around, with the elegant Hemingway and understated Jai West being true discoveries. There's also a delightful cameo by Pamela Anderson, who plays with and against type as an aging supermodel who may know more than she lets on. Technical credits are solid with the production design complementing the austere cinematography. Kate Bush's "Running up that Hill" lends an effective coda to the proceedings.

Definitely worth a look if you get a chance.

The People Garden is a movie with a strange, dark vibe. The atmosphere is spooky and it keeps you guessing until the end. Hovever it would be just another solid, Lynch-inspired mystery drama, without the truly excellent performance by Pamela Anderson. She really makes a difference here: still super beautiful and sexy (look for the beautiful nude scene *Thank You, Pam!*) she appears like a dark, mysterious goddess, a Fallen Muse, someone from the realm between reality a fantasy. Think "women-icons" from Felilni's masterpieces. Every scene with Pamela is magical.

A must see film for all Anderson's fans, but also for the haters. She's created a complex, super interesting character in The People Garden. An Oscar-worthy performance!

The plot summary was intriguing and the film started off well. From a point though it just drifts, as if the writer and director ran out of ideas. Quite disappointing.

I saw it at BAFICI, South America's largest film festival for independent cinema in 2016. The film does not easily fit into a genre and so will not appeal to everyone. It is a little like Yorgos Lanthimos directed Lost In Translation. The film is unique in that it disguises itself as a mystery: the disappearance of a rock star during the filming of a music video in a Japanese forest. But, underneath its eerie atmosphere there is a minimalist story about loss. The film plays almost as as a haunting love song, more than a narrative story. I saw it at the same time as another Canadian indie film Les Demos Phillipe Lesage and I thought both works showed promise from their writer/directors. The good work of its protagonist, Dree Hemingway (great - granddaughter of the writer), and an unrecognizable Pamela Anderson are part of the appeal.

Sweetpea (Dree Hemingway) arrives in Japan to break up with her boyfriend Jamie. A stranger named Mak picks her up at the airport and leaves her at the entrance to a mysterious forest. She speaks no Japanese and is told to walk in by herself. She encounters a girl and eventually finds Jamie's film crew. Mak is there waiting. She is told that Jamie is missing and nothing seems right. Signe (Pamela Anderson) is the lead actress.

This movie starts with an intriguing premise. She has traveled halfway around the world to break up with her boyfriend. It's intriguing. She doesn't do it in text or in an email. She has to confront him face to face. For some reason, Japan's suicide forest has ignited the imagination of some movies. The problem is that they keep trying to use it in horrors and supernatural thrillers. It seems tacky and cultural ignorant. Even worst, it's lazy. The movie sets up a mood and the intriguing start. Then the movie stalls. It has no ideas. At first, the mystery of Mak hold some interest but that fades quickly. It makes no sense why Sweetpea would be so concerned about a guy whom she intends to break up with. By that point, even the initial intriguing premise is corrupted by the story. I'm not sure what filmmaker Nadia Litz is attempting. This is like a campfire ghost story which bored the kids to sleep.