“Gardens of the Night” (2008) is a generally well made film, but it’s damned hard to review.   We can’t … enjoy the movie, because it isn’t meant to entertain.  It’s a detailed docudrama that shows the abduction and forced prostitution of an eight-year-old girl, then the permanent destruction of her life in her teen years.

It’s gut-wrenching.  The first half of the movie plays almost like a twisted procedural in which a child pornographer and slaver (brilliantly and unexpectedly portrayed by Tom Arnold) tricks and kidnaps young Leslie (Ryan Simpkins).

We’re shown the nuts and bolts of everything – starting with how Arnold’s character earns her trust (“Can you help me find my dog?”, “I’m a friend of your father’s.”)  And Arnold is so convincing in the role, it’s easy to see how lines like this can fool a child.  We see how she’s drugged, imprisoned, and persuaded that her parents don’t want her anymore, then how she’s coaxed and reassured into prostitution to pedophiles.  There were a few times when I wanted to shout at the screen – such as when Arnold’s character actually coaches the prepubescent girl about what customers expect.  Then we’re even shown how children are marketed and sold – with catalogs and photos and polite, secret business meetings.  Jeremy Sisto and Harold Perrineau show up in effective supporting roles that will turn your stomach.

Then – midway through the film, we fast-forward to Leslie’s life as a teenager, where she is now somehow free of Arnold and his even more evil partner (well played by Kevin Zegers, who I remember best as the sweetnatured, clean-cut kid in Zack Snyder’s 2004 “Dawn of the Dead” remake).

Again – it’s hard to know whether to recommend this movie.  To call it sad would be an understatement.  It IS a pretty well made film – the acting is great all around, and especially from Arnold.  And Imdb.com says that that writer/director Damian Harris developed it after years of research among child victims.

It has some problems, though.  For a drama about a victim, its central character just isn’t well rendered or extremely likable.  It’s awkwardly structured.  Unless I’m mistaken, we never find out how Leslie escapes her captors.

The movie is also poorly paced, I think … it drags a bit around the middle and the anticlimactic ending feels like a postscript.  Finally, it seems to make little use of John Malkovich’s genius in a supporting role.  (That guy is goddam mesmerizing – like Anthony Hopkins, he could read names out of a telephone book and make it interesting.)

Quite honestly, if this movie is as accurate as it claims (and there’s no reason to think it wouldn’t be), it would make a great educational tool.  No child should watch it, but it’s so explicit and procedural in nature that it seems like a great resource for training police officers or parents.

If you watch this, I strongly recommend watching “Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey” or “Old School” afterward – y’know … just so you don’t kill yourself.