Now, out of reach of his family and weight problems, Sweet William has a happy, openly gay relationship with his lover Dick. Despite being newly wed, Fletcher finds it difficult not to show his feelings for the attractive returnee. Against all expectations, Rosemary is not at all narrow-minded about this, and even encourages her husband to continue where the two youths left off, when they were rudely interrupted.

But there are other surprises in store for Sweet William, who now has a younger brother – although, as it turns out, Violet is a girl. But that's not all...

The family is as dysfunctional as ever, Whiskey Mac's alcoholism has made some great advances, as has Grace's senility, Aunt Laura continuously interrupts everybody and Rosemary earns a reputation as the most irritated bride in cinematic history. Mother Iris has finally had enough, and is considering drastic measures.

In the midst of all this there are still some skeletons to be found in cupboards, so that the greatest stroke of fate in the family's history so far can finally be dealt with...
 

• Screenplay writer and debut feature-film director Thom Fitzgerald crosses the up till now carefully observed boundaries of cinematic possibilities. Whilst in the last century, literature has gone on to new temporal and unnatural planes, the cinema has basically followed the same conservative structures year in, year out; either totally realistic, linear timelines, or completely divorced from reality in the minds of the characters. Recently magical realism has, happily, become more popular. While this does pep up an otherwise naturalistic story with selected moments – still perfectly logical – mostly near the end of a film, The Hanging Garden is surreal to the core.

At the age of 15 the teased, beaten and sexually abused 160-kilo (350-pound) gay boy could not face the world any more, and hanged himself on the apple tree in the garden. Although he obviously did die, he managed to make a life for himself in the city. For all concerned, death is robbed of its finality, and nobody is particularly amazed at Sweet William's return. Every morning, his own youthful body hangs from the tree, and is cut down by his father, in tears. All just a dream, a ghost story? Certainly not, and that's not important.

It is about holding out even the most difficult times, soon there will be the opportunity to lead a more satisfying life. The grown-up, happy protagonist is treated as an alternative to the void which normally follows a suicide.

Another of the film's messages is that you always need your family, even if they do get on your nerves. I would like to oppose the premise that you should always fall back on your blood relatives; note the North American familial sentimentality in films by gay directors. But why complain? Compared to other homecoming films (Home for the Holidays, Taylor's Return, The Myth of Fingerprints to name the most successful), where the kids return to the family home for Thanksgiving, The Hanging Garden is a supernova next to countless servings of porridge: hard-nosed, rebellious and unashamedly magical. Yes!

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