Lawn Dogs Movie

Lawn Dogs
Rating:
Run Time: 120 min
MPAA Rating:
Released: 1997
Directors: John Duigan
Genre/Type: Drama
Family Drama
Coming-of-Age
Childhood Drama
Odd Couple Film
Producers: Duncan Kenworthy
Plot Synopsis by Mark Deming
A young girl finds friendship on the wrong side of the career tracks in this drama. Camelot Gardens is a "gated community" where wealthy people can purchase luxurious (if sterile) homes and a security force ensures that riffraff will be kept away from your door after nightfall. The Stockard family are new arrivals at Camelot Gardens; father Morton (Christopher McDonald) is a businessman who wants to go into politics, while mother Clare (Kathleen Quinlan) busies herself with affairs with younger men. Neither seems to have much time for their 10-year-old daughter Devon (Mischa Barton), who doesn't care for children her own age; Devon's uncle likes to entertain her with stories about a witch named Baba Yaga who lives in the forest, so one day she wanders into the nearby woods looking for Baba. Instead, she finds a trailer that's home to Trent (Sam Rockwell), a 20-something free spirit who scrapes together a living by mowing the lawns of Camelot Gardens. Devon and Trent both have physical and emotional scars to deal with, and they soon become friends and confidantes; however, Devon's parents become upset when they learn that their daughter's best friend is a grown man, particularly one who lives in a trailer and does lawn maintenance for a living. Lawn Dogs won awards at a number of international film festivals in 1997, including the Stockholm Film Festival, the Montreal World Film Festival, and the Catalonian International Film Festival.

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Back to the top Top Questions about Lawn Dogs

To keep a dog off of your lawn, the only thing that is guaranteed is a fence. Dogs have a natural instinct to mark their territory, and there's not much you can do aside from stay out front with a hose.
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Newly arrived in an up-market housing development, quiet ten-year-old Devon doesn't quite fit in. Ignoring the urgings of her social-climbing father... more | add synopsis

Cast

Actors Character Born
Sam Rockwell Trent Burns Nov 5, 1968 in Daly City, CA
Christopher McDonald Morton Stockard Feb 15, 1955
Kathleen Quinlan Clare Stockard Nov 19, 1954 in Pasadena, CA
Bruce McGill Nash Jul 11, 1950 in San Antonio, TX
Mischa Barton Devon Stockard Jan 24, 1986 in London, England
David Barry Gray Brett
Eric Mabius Sean Apr 21, 1971 in Harrisburg, PA
Tom Aldredge Jake Feb 28, 1928 in Dayton, OH
Beth Grant Beth
Angie Harmon Pam Gregory Aug 10, 1972 in Highland Park, TX

Back to the topReview

Review by Tom Wiener
A ten-year-old girl bonding with a psychologically damaged veteran who lives in a trailer in the woods may sound like a recipe for something sappy, or, worse, something kinky. Naomi Wallace's script and John Duigan's direction steer clear of those extremes. Devon Stockard, played by the remarkable Mischa Barton, is well aware that her striving, glad-handing parents (Chris McDonald and Kathleen Quinlan) are also hypocrites of the first order. Arriving in a new neighborhood, a suburban enclave filled with big sterile homes and perfectly manicured lawns devoid of any evidence of children, Devon retreats into her own world -- an early scene of her crawling out onto the roof to sing to the night sky sums that up neatly. Not surprisingly, Devon fastens onto the scruffy Trent Burns, sensing an adult who is both kind and honest. Sam Rockwell plays Trent, who is a darker version of The Kid character he played in Box of Moonlight; both are trailer-dwelling loners, but Trent is more in fearful retreat from the world than in defiant rebellion against it. The film allows these two souls to find some pleasure and solace in each other's company, even as we sense that their relationship can't last, once her parents learn of it.
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