Lawn Dogs

Dir: John Duigan

1997

*****

1997’s Lawn Dogs seemed to come and go without much fanfare, the critics praised it upon its release but it was largely overlooked and forgotten. Such a shame, as Naomi Wallace’s story is heartwarming and the performances and direction were rather special. There was something dream-like about it although there wasn’t actually anything fantastical about it, although it did incorporate the folktale of Baba Yaga. The story explores the societal repercussions of what is seen as an unorthodox friendship between a man and a girl. We follow ten-year-old Devon Stockard (Mischa Barton in her debut performance), a precocious and lonely young girl who has recently moved into a gated community called Camelot Gardens in the suburbs of Louisville, KY with her parents, Morton and Clare (Christopher McDonald and Kathleen Quinlan). The ‘Burbs’ are a scary place in any country but I’ve always found America’s suburban districts to be more sinister than others - probably thanks to Edward Scissorhands – and the two films do feel quite similar in many respects. Recently having recovered from open heart surgery, Devon is encouraged by her parents to make friends and she is pushed to sell cookies for a charity event for the summer. While selling cookies, Devon leaves the gated community against the instruction of her mother, and meets Trent Burns (played by Sam Rockwell), a bit of a loner who does the landscaping in Camelot Gardens who lives in a trailer in the woods. Devon is intrigued by Trent and Trent appreciates Devon’s imagination and independent thought – it is a refreshing change from everyone else in Camelot Gardens. Devon imagines her life to be like the fable of Baba Yaga, a fairy-tale which the film makes parallels to. Like Baba Yaga, Devon sees herself as an outsider, through her way of thinking and in part due to her chest scar that she sees as ugly. Although Baba Yaga is often seen as a villain, she is also seen as a maternal character and Devon finds herself looking after (or at least wanting to) Trent in similar way. Devon, at first an annoyance to Trent, continues to come to his property and slowly befriends him; despite the innocence of their friendship, he insists that she keep it a secret because of their age difference. While working in Camelot Gardens, Trent begins having altercations with two young men who live there; Brett (David Barry Gray), who is having an affair with Devon's mother; and Sean (Eric Mabius), a man with closeted homosexual tendencies who flirts with Trent. During a family barbecue, Devon explores her father's car in their garage. She finds her father's handgun in the glove compartment of his SUV. Brett discovers her with the gun and attempts to molest Devon in the garage, but she escapes. She tells her parents about the incident, but then insists that Brett was only trying to tickle her. Her mother begins to notice Devon's apparent friendship with Trent when he comes to do lawn work at their house, and becomes alarmed. Meanwhile, Brett and Sean terrorize Trent by pouring sugar in the fuel tank of his lawnmower and start a fight with him after they wrongfully believe he stole CDs from Sean's car. Devon and Trent's friendship continues to grow, and the two go to visit Trent's mother and his father, a Korean War veteran who is dying of a lung disease. After leaving Trent's parents' house, Trent and Devon go for a drive in the country. While stopped in a field, Devon insists that since the two are "best friends", she can show him her surgical scar on her chest. She asks him to touch it to his reluctance, and then demands that he show her his abdominal scar which he sustained in a shooting. After showing each other their scars, the two see Sean's dog running through the field, having escaped. While trying to chase the dog down in the truck, they accidentally run him over. Trent kills the badly injured dog in spite of Devon's pleas for him not to, and she runs home in a panic over the incident. Devon’s parents, concerned over their daughter’s frantic behavior, ask her what happened, but she refuses to provide details, only saying that Trent killed Sean's dog and mentions that she and Trent took turns showing each other their scars. Assuming that Trent molested her, Morton drives out to Trent's property with Devon, assisted by Sean and an ex-cop who is a security guard in Camelot Gardens. The three men confront Trent while Devon sits in the car. Morton and Sean take turns beating Trent, and Morton accuses him of raping Devon. Morton attacks Trent with a piece of wood, beating him to the ground, and hands it to Sean; but before Sean can hit him, Devon exits her father's car with his handgun and shoots Sean in the abdomen. As Sean bleeds on the ground, Devon urges Trent to leave, and they say their goodbyes. Armed with her father's gun, Devon orders her dad to lift her up into a tree that she and Trent had decorated with ribbons, and she uses the powers of Baba Yaga to help Trent escape. It’s one of the most wonderful conclusions to a film ever and is up there with Breaking the Waves and It’s a Wonderful Life. The dreamlike nature of the film works incredibly well, considering the film is played straight the whole way through. There is a unique ambiguity about it too that really breathes life into a story that goes against convention. Sadly, Lawn Dogs was to be the final film of the once mighty Rank Organization and it would be the last time we’d see the shirtless muscle man hit the famous gong at the beginning of the film. However, thanks to Mischa Barton and Sam Rockwell’s great performances, Naomi Wallace story and John Duigan perfect direction, it was a great film to go out on.