Republished from the show notes of my other site, Fuds on Film.
So, on looking back at Rockwell’s career, it seemed like it would be a good idea to review the film that brought him to the attention of many of the Indy film and indeed Hollywood types that would cast him in a variety of supporting roles over the next few decades, even if this movie itself is fairly obscure. My rationale for saying that being limited entirely to me not having heard of it before researching this podcast. However, the capsule review of “lower class gardener coming to befriend lonely girl” made it sound like quite the heartwarming, gentle opener for this episode.
It is not.
Rockwell does indeed play a lower class, trailer-dwelling Southern gardener, tending to the lawns of a gated community, Camelot Gardens, to which the Stockard family have recently. 10-year-old Devon Stockard (Mischa Barton) seems, perhaps, to struggle making the friends her parents Morton and Clare (Christopher McDonald and Kathleen Quinlan) so desperately want her to make, but to be honest it seems that Devon is content enough with her vivid imagination.
One day, while venturing outside of Camelot Gardens selling Girl Scout cookies, she comes across Trent Burns (Rockwell)’s trailer and begins to inflict a friendship on him, Trent initially resisting before being won over by her. Trent instructs Devon to keep this friendship a secret, lest he be accused of Woody Allen-ing her.
Meanwhile, the rest of Camelot Gardens has their own things going on. Hooting frat boy Brett (David Barry Gray) is having an affair with Devon’s mother and his mate Sean (Eric Mabius) is making goo-goo eyes at Trent from firmly inside the closet. An initial class-based mistrust blossoms into real problems between Brett and Trent, due to some daft wee kids prank, and, well, before much time has passed, in the interest of avoiding too many spoilers, let’s just say things spiral out of control through a series of misunderstandings, and everyone will wish they’d obeyed some basic handgun safety advice.
It’s an oddly toned film, with the relationship between Devon and Trent having a completely innocent, fairytale-like quality, while everything outside of that narrative aspect is ghastly. An immaculately facaded, white-picket fenced, 60’s Americana thinly layered over the darkness, but there’s some obvious nastiness bubbling away from the very start that eventually takes over the entire plot in a way that, well, didn’t seem all that natural a way to me, but it’s undeniably obvious which way this film is flowing.
Rockwell does well, with a role that could quite easily have headed too far into stereotype, and brings enough nuance and charm to hang the film on. Which is fortunate, as that aside, I’m not sure I liked Lawn Dogs all that much. Not to say I disliked it, but I struggle to get a handle on quite what it’s trying to say. It’s not just a character piece, it does seem to be trying to say something about society here, but its messaging is a little muddled.
Is this about class? Friendship? Paranoia? Prejudice? All of that? None of it? Not sure, and other than the very obvious conclusions – prejudice bad, friendship good – I’m not sure the film itself knows quite what it is reaching for. That’s not enough to make the film a write-off, but it’s enough to stop me unreservedly recommending it. For Rockwell completionists only.