John Malkovich in Gardens of the Night

Tom Arnold Terrifies in Abduction Film

Gardens Of The Night is about an 8-year-old girl who loves The Jungle Book and who is abducted and told by her kidnappers she is unwanted and unloved. She eventually ends up living on the street as a prostitute and the story unfolds from there.

After enduring 9 years of horror, she and her fellow victim are dumped by their capturers. At 17 with no one to turn to but each other, they do their best to survive life on the streets. When she accepts the help of a shelter counselor to find her way home.

John Malkovich lends his powerhouse talent to the film in yet another small and understated role. Tom Arnold (best known as "that guy who married Roseanne Barr") plays a disturbingly likable abductor. Ryan Simpkins plays Leslie (a Dakota Fanning lookalike) in her childhood while Gillian Jacobs takes on her older persona. Jeremy Sisto (now of Law & Order, formerly Six Feet Under) and Kevin Zeggers (Transamerica, Jane Austin Book Club) also make cameo appearances.

The writer/ director, Damian Harris, is the son of Richard Harris and has helmed Mercy, Deceived and Bad Company. He bases his story on the kids, counselors, cops and pimps he met during two years of research. Harris tells a good story well written and competently made, but it doesn't go to the dark places a braver film would. It implies rather than shows.

Gardens Of The Night carries a MPAA rating of "R" for "disturbing content involving sexual exploitation of a child, language, sexual content and some drug use." Hard Candy it is not, but be warned that it is not for the faint of heart.