Themes: Sibling Relationships, Hide the Dead Body, Death of a Parent
Main Cast: Andrew N. Robertson, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Sinéad Cusack, Alice Coulthard, Ned Birkin
Release Year: 1993
Country: FR/UK/DE
Run Time: 101 minutes
MPAA Rating: NR
Plot
Ian McEwan's disturbing novel is given a chilly shimmer in this film adaptation by Andrew Birkin. The film takes place in a concrete slab of a house situated on the outskirts of an English town. The father (Hanns Zischer) is a consumptive creep, while the mother (Sinead Cusack) is a sweet and understanding matriarch. When the father dies of a heart attack after his garden is paved over, it is too much for the mother to bear, and after a few weeks she wastes away and also dies. This leaves the children to fend for themselves. The eldest sister and brother, Julie (Charlotte Gainsbourg) and Jack (Andrew Robertson), have to care for the younger children, Sue (Alice Coultard) and Tom (Ned Birkin). Without parental supervision, the four children give themselves up to their secret longings. Jack hides in corners to masturbate, but Julie uses her sexual attraction to lure Jack into an incestuous relationship. Even the younger children have their problems: Sue is mostly mute and spends all her time obsessively writing in her journal, while Tom feels that deep inside himself he is a girl trapped in a boy's body. The children hide the mother's remains in the basement and live off her bank account. The neighbors don't suspect a thing --that is until sleazy Derek (Jochen Horst) begins to come around in his red convertible, trying to get a date with Julie. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
Review
"Keep it in the family" takes on a new meaning -- both onscreen and off -- in Andrew Birkin's disturbing Cement Garden. The film stars two members of Birkin's own family, including his son Ned Birkin and his niece Charlotte Gainsbourgh as siblings Jack and Julie. The lack of parental control forces a mutation in the roles of brother and sister, a mutation that becomes the main theme of the tale. The performances of all four leads leaves a sense of repression and secrecy that is hard to shake. By underplaying their roles, Birkin and Gainsbourgh create a sense of claustrophobic creepiness that permeates the entire movie. While the film's central themes may be difficult to swallow, any viewer will be left with strong opinions, which is exactly what a film such as this should do. Cement Garden is based on a book by Ian McEwen, whose equally disturbing novel The Comfort of Strangers has also been made into a film. ~ Laura Abraham, All Movie Guide
