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by Frank Wilkins
Lawn Dogs is one of those movies that you just can't forget. On the surface it appears to be a lazy little vacant tale to watch and soon forget, but after the movie ended, I found myself sitting in front of the screen feeling as if a Mack truck had just slammed into me. But slammed into me in a soft and magical way. Does that make sense?

I watched this movie because I had recently seen Sam Rockwell (Green Mile, Charlie's Angels) play a similar character in Tom DiCillo's Box of Moonlight (1997). I was quickly moved by his quirky portrayal of a free-spirited, Dan'l Boone clothes wearing, lawn ornament recycler. You might also remember him as the crazy "Wild Bill" Wharton in Steven King's The Green Mile. In Lawn Dogs he turns in an equally memorable performance despite competition from the 10-year old scene-stealing Mischa Barton (Notting Hill, The Sixth Sense). These two relatively unknown actors have that intangible screen chemistry that just flies off the screen. I am very surprised that we have not heard a lot more from these two since Dogs.

Lawn Dogs is a message movie that unfolds its story in a soft, mesmerizing, tragic, fairy tale like manner. Rockwell plays the 21-year-old Trent, a yard maintenance worker who mows lawns in the gated community of Camelot Gardens, a snobby, upper-middle class suburb where human civility takes a back seat to the outwardly appearance of economic success. Here he meets 10-year-old Devon, the equally free-spirited daughter of a family that has recently moved into the community. It is as if destiny placed these two together both as characters and as actors. We immediately become sympathetic to their plight of independence and individuality, as we see the saddening, class warfare demonstrated by the upwardly mobile families in this soulless community. As the only two people who can understand each other's desires to become something better than their pathetic, ostentatious families and neighbors, Trent and Devon develop a strange and sometimes uncomfortable relationship. Nothing sexual between the two of them but much of the activity takes place at Trent's trailer in the woods isolated from view where we were witnesses to an earlier sexual encounter between Trent and one of his customers.

The two become great friends, much to the chagrin of Devon's mother and father, and we begin to really see the absurdity displayed by her parents in their futile efforts to terminate the friendship. Through Devon and Trent's harmless adventures - one involving the "mooning" of local fisherman from the hood of Trent's truck - our compassion for their cause is strengthened and our contempt towards the neighborhood's inhabitants is deepened. Some of the funniest scenes in the movie are when we see the ridiculously hypocritical, mightier-than-thou preachings from her parents directed towards Devon knowing that her Mom often has sex with different men in the neighborhood.

Masterful direction from John Duigan (The Journey of August King and Molly), the brilliant writing debut of Naomi Wallace and inspirational performances from Rockwell and Barton combine to create one of my favorite movies that no one has seen. The ending is tragic and hits you like an anvil but Devon's recurring fairy-tale of "Baba Yaga that lived in the woods" sprinkled throughout the plot contribute to the magical and ethereal feel of the movie. I give Lawn Dogs a high wrap-up factor rating due to the unexpected ending and a high Se7en factor rating as I just can't shake the memories of what happens in this movie. A good way to describe this movie is to call it hauntingly-loveable. Does that make sense?
Frank Wilkins

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