The Hanging Garden

Canada, 1997. 91 mins. MGM

Ten years after he disappeared from his family's life, Sweet William (Chris Leavins) returns home to Nova Scotia for his sister's wedding. Despite the fact that he's gone from a morbidly obese adolescent to a thin, handsome, self-assured young man, the reunion proves bittersweet. Although he reconnects with his loving sister Rosemary (Kerry Fox) and his Alzheimer's-afflicted grandmother Grace (Joan Orenstein), he is dismayed to learn that his parents' rocky marriage has settled into permanent animosity. He also witnesses the toll his absence has taken on his abusive, alcoholic father, Whiskey Mack (Peter MacNeill); his tight-lipped mother Iris (Seana McKenna); and Violet (Christine Dunsworth), the tomboyish younger sister he's never met.

Director: Thom Fitzgerald