What a waste of my time!!!

Perfect cast and a good story

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

Aspiring production designers and location scouts should take note of "The Cement Garden" (1993) as an example of especially good use of an available on-the-cheap location. Like the equally low-budget "Carnival of Souls", the film owes much of its effectiveness to the creative use of an available location. "The Cement Garden's" outdoor shots should look familiar as Stanley Kubrick used the location back in 1987 for the main battle sequence of "Full Metal Jacket". He used the abandoned Beckton Gasworks just across from the Royal Docks area (Beckton-Silverton London). The area has now been transformed into London City Airport. As a film, "The Cement Garden" could best be described as pretentious (marked by an unwarranted claim to importance or distinction). It is a movie that tries embarrassingly hard to be more than the sum of its parts. The strategy is to introduce shocking and scandalous elements in such a casual way that it will amp up the effect of breaking taboos far beyond what they would otherwise merit. This too owes much to Kubrick (insert "Lolita" here). "The Cement Garden" is what you would get if Gregg Araki remade "Our Mother's House" on a shoestring budget; although it is safe to say Araki would have done a much better job of acting for the camera direction. It is an adaptation of Ian McEwan's controversial novel, but as the adapting was done by Director Andrew Birkin (later to be blamed for "The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc" script), the result is likely to be disappointing to readers of McEwan's book. I recommend the film, although some viewers will not enjoy it most will be mildly shocked and entertained by it. I found viewing possible only in 20 minute segments (not so much because it was painful but because it was not involving enough for me to ignore household interruptions). Since the macabre elements aren't particularly shocking (just a couple of stylish "Blue Velvet" type shots), Birkin must fall back on incest and gender identity. It is one perversion too many and there is no logical connection between the two. The story is about a family of six (mother, father, two daughters and two sons). The older son is meant to look like a girl, the older daughter is meant to look like a boy, and the younger son wants to be a girl. The mother's death occurs a few weeks after the father, and the children conceal her death in an effort to stay together. The story is told from the point of view of the oldest boy, who is turned on by his own reflection and by his tease of an older sister. Since he looks so much more feminine than her, his sexual orientation may actually be straight. The younger sister (who is not involved in any of this) looks perfectly normal but spends a lot of time writing letters to her dead mother. Like "Our Mother's House" (a far better film), an older man is inserted into the story in an effort to make something happen. While a little hard to decipher, the basic themes concern the problems associated with assuming responsibilities before you are emotionally mature enough for them. In fairness, an attempt is made to insert an allegorical element into the film, as the older boy frequently does a voice-over reading of a science fiction story. This is meant to reflect his internal moral struggles but the connection with the events of the story is rather fuzzy. Not surprising since the weak direction builds neither suspense nor convincing characters. But at least there is that great production design. Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.

"The Cement Garden" follows the behavior of four children living in an austere semi-rural house on the fringe of society after the death of their parents. The kids include a young adult daughter, a late teen son, a pubescent daughter, and a prepubescent son. The film spends its time pouring over their daily routines as the family behavior becomes increasingly odd threatening to slip into the realm of the bizarre.Uneventful, intentionally bleak with a narrow range of emotion and limited dramatic excursions, this dreary, melancholic psychodrama focuses on the pair of older siblings as their familial loyalty and love inches beyond the edge of normalcy.A solid watch for the serious drama enthusiast, this Brit flick manifests excellent auteursmanship with limited production value. (B)

I saw this on Filmfour last night, and thought it was quite interesting. Do not wanna give away too much spoilers, but basically both parents in a family die, and the kids decide to make a go of it on their own. You are not given much hints as to the passage of time, but you can see the house, and the garden from the title, falling into greater disrepair. None of the kids have jobs, so you wonder how they are surviving. And through it all a series of bizarre events and things they would not get up to with their parents around happen. There are also a few elements of escapism, for instance cuts to grainy 1970's-looking cinecam film of the family in happier days at the seaside, and the (beautiful) main character (i will also add you get to see him topless and naked a lot..heh) reading a sci-fi story book, which is narrated out loud by the kind of voice that would have been used for old "Flash gordon" episodes. All else i can really say is SEE IT!Tally: Sex: 6/10 (quality not quantity!), Drugs: 0/10, Rock 'n roll: 2/10, Classic cars: 6/10 (see sex), Zombies: 0/10, Gore: 0/10

Having read McEwan's haunting and beautiful novel some years ago, I anticipated the film and recently found it in my university library. Sad to say I was hugely dissapointed.Birkin has taken away the novels macabre humour and charcterisations and replaced them with sign posts which direct us to the reasons why they have their affair (parental loss, burgeoning sexuality) rather than letting the feelings and jealousy fester as they did in the novel. Also he has altered Julie's older lover Derek to the point where the funniest scene in the book (Derek taking the bemused Jack to a pool hall) has been completely erased and the charcter is now foreign and middle class as opposed to working class and English.Having said that it contains the most hilarious line of dialogue I have ever heard:Jack (to Tom) when you look at William, do you get a funny feeling in your dinky?