The Gardener
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The Gardener
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A Lot or a Little?
The parents' guide to what's in this movie.
What Parents Need to Know
Parents need to know that The Gardener is a 2021 action movie in which the gardener of a mansion in the English countryside must protect a family from vicious home invaders. Expect violence throughout, sometimes graphic. Home invaders shoot and kill a pregnant woman. Characters are shot and killed. During a fight scene, a man forces another man's hand into the blades of a running lawnmower -- the result is graphic, bloody. Character stabbed and killed with a spade. Shears used to stab a man's chest. A boobytrapped nail gun fires and hits someone in the leg. Pistol-whipping. Neck breaking. Strong language throughout, including "f--k." Cigarette smoking. Wine drinking. Cliched representations of different ethnicities in movie centered on White family in Willoughby, England -- fussy French maid, cold Russian villain, etc. The lead character is a foreigner from central Europe with an implied tragic and violent past.
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What's the Story?
In THE GARDENER, Peter (Robert Bronzi) works as a gardener in a manor in the English countryside for the Henderson family. The Hendersons are planning a getaway for the holidays, in part as a way to bring the family closer together and patch up the failing marriage between Stephen and Lauren (Nicola Wright). But these plans are scuttled when teen daughter Hannah wants to stick with her plan to spend time with her boyfriend. Meanwhile, a group of sadistic and not-bright home invaders, led by the sadistic mastermind Volker (Gary Daniels), waits for the Hendersons to leave so they can rob the place. When they see Hannah leave, they think the family has left, so the invaders take the remaining Hendersons prisoner. Little do they know that Peter is staying in his humble servant's room, in a nearby guesthouse, and when he realizes what's happening, he springs into action. Relying on his murky military background and guerilla training, Peter must lure the invaders out one at a time and take them out, and find a way to rescue the Hendersons. But when it's revealed that there's more to what's happening than a simple home invasion, it's up to the Hendersons to help Peter fight back.
Is It Any Good?
This is a ludicrous action movie that is, at times, unintentionally hilarious. The Gardener is basically a paint-by-numbers action movie in which the action hero (yes, a gardener with a mysterious military past) spends most of the movie's second act taking out an international conglomerate of home invaders who are going after the English manor where he tends to the flowers and shrubs and bushes. It's not spoiling anything to reveal that various garden implements are used to fatal, bloody, and graphic effect. And there are even some gardening metaphors connecting roots and families, although not nearly enough is made of all the possible one-liners that could've been employed throughout during the action sequences -- "you reap what you sow," etcetera.
Unintentionally funny dialogue, fight scenes that test the limits of the audience's gullibility, highly questionable accents -- these elements would make The Gardener entertaining in a so-bad-it's-good way if the story itself wasn't so formulaic. Still, you can't help but laugh when one of the lead villains, upon learning that there's one person they didn't account for while plotting their invasion and robbery of the manor, exclaims in a voice of terror and awe, "It's the gardener!" as if he's talking about an unkillable monster rather than an aging Charles Bronson doppelganger. It's hard to imagine anyone having high expectations before sitting down to watch a movie like this, and it almost goes without saying that expectations set at a low bar is the key to deriving any entertainment value from this ridiculous action movie.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about action movies like The Gardener. How is this similar to and different from other action movies you've seen?
Was the violence more or less graphic and bloody than in other action movies? Does an action movie need violence to be enjoyable? What do you think is the appeal of violent movies like this?
Where did the movie stereotype ethnicities through some of its characters? Why is this a problem?
Movie Details
- On DVD or streaming: December 29, 2021
- Cast: Robert Bronzi, Gary Daniels, Nicola Wright
- Director: Rebecca Matthews
- Studio: Lionsgate
- Genre: Action/Adventure
- Topics: Brothers and Sisters
- Run time: 89 minutes
- MPAA rating: R
- MPAA explanation: Strong/bloody violence and language throughout.
- Last updated: October 8, 2022
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