Lawn Dogs (1997)

From NetFlix:

In the affluent, gated community of Camelot Gardens, bored wives indiscriminately sleep around while their unwitting husbands try desperately to climb the social ladder. Trent, a 21-year-old outsider who mows the neighborhood lawns, quietly observes the infidelities and hypocrisies of this overly privileged society. When Devon, a 10-year-old daughter from one family, forges a friendship with Trent, things suddenly get very complicated.

Infuriating is the first emotion that comes to mind for several reasons.

  • Sam Rockwell plays the underdog “trailer trash” Trent as an athletic, honest, but very underprivileged young man who accepts his low place and life and rarely fights back.
  • Snobs in the gated community (more real than caricatures) demean him constantlySpoiled snob children devise mean tricks that eventually rob Trent of his ability to earn a living.
  • Was that ending a cop-out ? Did the movie break down ?

Mischa Barton was only 11 when she played the young girl Devon who drives the entire film with her curiosity, wild imagination, and unrestrained behavior. Today she is a beautiful woman of 25.

Sam Rockwell seemed much younger than 29 in the film. My first reaction was “Boy, is he homely ! Where did Hollywood get him ?” But he makes a perfect foil to Devon’s escapades. As a man of 43 years he is about to appear in “Cowboys & Aliens”.

Their relation is completely innocent but for me the entire film seemed menacing in the sense that sooner or later someone will suspect something foul. And I kept waiting for him to get even with all the injustices.

Google did not help me find references to cheese infected with a fatal bacteria given to our Korean soldiers.

By the time the film ended I was really angry but at the same time I found the film to be a successful breath of fresh air. Tell me what you think of that ending. Expect some surprises.

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