Fireflies in the Garden, (2008)

Fireflies in the Garden, (2008)

Synopsis: The all American family, the Taylors seem like a picture perfect family. Successful husband Charles is a tenured professor. Matriarch wife Lisa is a devote wife who is just recently finishing up her bachelors after years of raising her children. And their two children, Michael is a prolific author, and his sister Ryne is law school bound. To the outside world the family has it all, but nothing is as perfect as it seems. After a fatal accident leading to the death of Lisa, the reality of this Midwestern family’s long unseen history of what’s really happening behind the public eye is shown some light.

  Characters Appearances + Mannerisms of (Charles Taylor)

When Charles Taylor is first introduced in the film, it is when he and his son Michael and wife Lisa are in the car. Tension in the scene between him and his son leave Charles combative. After his wife Lisa tries to step in and help the tension “Charles I know you have been under a lot of tension lately. Charles fires back at her, “how could you possibly know how much pressure I’ve been under?” Charles’s physical appearance is that of an older man, educated. He plays classical music while driving and he isn’t afraid to speak his mind. After turning the argument from his son Charles says to Lisa. “Do you know how much sacrifices I have made for this family?” Charles is showing idealized masculinity in his performance as the patriarchal father who has suffered and sacrificed his own potentials from the sake of his family. In Charles eyes he is never wrong, why? Because he is the one who keeps the family afloat. The next scenes in the film flash back to another time, where Charles and the family are at the dinner table; where Lisa younger sister Jane has moved in with them for a while. Charles show idealized masculinity when he tells her after arguing about the dinner, “In this house we eats what put on the table,” Charles is establishing that this is his house and that she and anyone else will adhere to his rules. He then mentions to her, “Since you’re staying here this summer you follow our rules.”Charles dictates how the house functions and makes sure that no mistake goes unpunished.
After inviting his colleges to his house for a poetry reading done by his son, his some fails to produce original writing, but instead plagiarizes. Charles takes his son into the garage and makes him hold on to two huge paint cans with his arms wide open and says to him, “why would you be so stupid to say you wrote one of his poems.” The abuse that Charles displays on his son is not only his way of performing to idealized masculine beliefs, but also because he feels that his son

Charles not only performs idealized masculinity in his patriarchal role as father, husband and sole provider, but also in his sexual deviance. After Lisa finds out about Charles being unfaithful she threatens to leave him and take the kids. As she gets in her car he tries to stop her and when she says get away from my car Charles yells back at her, “Your car! Who paid for your car! You don’t even have a fucking job!”
Charles is adhering to the notions of idealized masculinity in that his performance doesn’t show any remorse for his actions. Unlike his wife, who at first was taking a stand against Charles, but when he reminded her of her dependency on him, she quickly became quiet and didn’t leave like she said she would. Charles then goes to say, “Lisa look at me when I’m talking to you.”
By speaking down to his wife, Charles is reestablishing his idealized masculinity as head of the house, and a man who could do no wrong.

The struggles of conforming to idealized masculinity isn’t only shown near the end of the film when Michael is crying to his cousin, worried about what would happen to him if his mother left them. After hearing about the Michael’s fears, Charles walks in to his room and hugs him and says, “My beautiful boy,” while Charles holds his son, he shows affection towards him, he reassures his son, “no mothers never going to leave us.” This performance of affection shows how Charles struggles with his performance of idealized masculinity and his performance as a loving father. He is suppose to be the stern strict father who doesn’t show any emasculating emotions, but when he sees the damage his son feels, he steps back from his role of the oppressor, and comforts his son.

Characters Appearances + Mannerisms of (Lisa Taylor)
Lisa Taylor is introduced in the film as the matriarchal wife. She is a devote wife to her husband, even in times of emotional and verbal

abuse of not just her but also the children. In the beginning of the film when the family is driving in their car home, Lisa physical appearance shows idealized femininity in that she is shown wearing pearl earrings, red cardigan, and her lips perfectly painted pink. She is conforming to the idealization that a woman must be the object of her husband’s desire. While in the car, Lisa tries to be the mediator when she witnesses Charles and Michael fighting, she says to her husband, “Charlie, I know you’ve been under a lot of pressure lately.” Lisa is performing her duties as the understanding and nurturing wife. Charles then says to her, how she possible could understand. By hearing this Lisa almost in tears, she looks down and away from him, but continues to keep quiet. This characteristic was prominent in a woman’s performance of idealized femininity, in that it conformed to the notion that a woman’s place is by her husband’s side, but never at his equal.  She then says to Charlie, “Your book is brilliant, once the reviews are out you will be granted tenure.”
Even after what Charles had said to her earlier, she still compliments him and thus allowing for her own oppression to help boost his domination. 

Lisa performs idealized femininity in the sense that even after seeing the abuse of her son; she still tries to shed light on his father. After tending to him, she says to him, “Your father loves you very much, he’s a good man and he’s just been under a lot of pressure.” Lisa is making excuses for her husband’s behavior. She is giving reasons for his abuse. All throughout her performance in the film, Lisa conforms to the notion of idealized femininity until her death. Her facial expressions throughout the film show a woman who was in constant pain, but knew her place not only as a woman, but more importantly a wife and a mother.
Characters Appearances + Mannerisms of (Michael Taylor)

When Michael Taylor is first introduced in the film, we see a puny boy looking out of a car window on a rainy day. Michaels physical appearance, show a young weak boy with oversized glasses. His facial expression shows that he is a miserable, but his body language shows a young boy who is always challenged by his father due to his physical lack of idealized masculinity (even at a young age). In the beginning scene of the film, Michael places his hand on the car window and gets scolded not to by his father (Charles Taylor). By challenging his father Michael replaces his hand on the window and ends up having to walk home in the rain.

 

Michael’s character shows a boy who is emasculated by his father. In one scene when the family is sitting around the dining table, Michael’s father asks him to write up a list of house for his cousin. After the list is made, his father challenges him by making a comment about his excellent work in writing rules, and if only he could apply them to his school work he would get better grades. Michael reply’s back, “maybe I’d get better grades if I didn’t have to spend all my time writing up those rules.” Michael’s deviant reply to his father’s comment shows how his performance of idealized masculinity is challenged.

As the film flashes back to the present time to his mother’s funeral gathering at his childhood home, Michael’s performance of idealized masculinity is challenged when his ex-wife Kelly comes to console him over his loss. He stares at her with a cigarette in one hand and his wedding bad in the other. She mentions to him that she has been sober for two months and fifteen days. Michael says to her, “I’m proud of you, it sucks that it broke up our marriage, but hey you’re sober now that’s all that really matters.”

Unlike Michaels child self in the film, adult Michael isn’t threatened by any challenge to his masculinity. In other scene at the funeral gathering, while everyone is downstairs saying a prayer in remembrance of his mother Michael decides to have very loud sex with his ex-wife in a room just over their heads, causing eyes to glance and giggles to be heard.

As the film flashes back to Michael’s childhood, the conflict between Michael and his father becomes stronger. Michael tries to stand up to his father in a physical fight when he finds out about his father’s infidelity. Michael yells, “Get away from her or I’ll kill you!" For Michael, by standing up to his father to protect his mother, Michael’s performance is trying to establish idealized masculinity. Near the end of the film, the truth of Michael’s conflict with his gendered identity is revealed. After Michael’s attempts to stand up to his father, he lies in bed crying to his cousin thinking about his fear of what would happen if his mother did leave. He says to his cousin, “what if she does leave me…hear with him” the emotion that young Michael shows is the contradiction of how he is suppose to perform. Even as a young man, through his father’s performance, he is instilled with the notion that boy’s aren’t suppose to cry.