Are We Finally Going to See ‘Fireflies in the Garden?’

Can you believe that a movie starring Julia Roberts, Willem Dafoe, Emily Watson, and Ryan Reynolds has been sitting on a shelf someplace in a studio archive since 2008?   And that Julia Roberts plays Ryan Reynolds’ mother?  The film has been shown abroad, but is now getting its first US release in New York and Los Angeles.

It is called “Fireflies in the Garden,” and it was filmed in 2008.  The studio shut down before it could be released.  It is the story of an unhappy family coming together after the death of the mother (Roberts is seen only briefly and mostly in flashbacks).

The title is from this poem by Robert Frost:

Fireflies in the Garden

Here come real stars to fill the upper skies,
And here on earth come emulating flies,
That though they never equal stars in size,
(And they were never really stars at heart)
Achieve at times a very star-like start.
Only, of course, they can’t sustain the part.