Bereft of that core, Gardens of Stone drifts off into decoration that’s intricate and highly accomplished, but strictly ornamental...

Seems to take its name not so much from the Arlington Memorial Cemetery, where much of the action takes place, but from the stiffness of the characters it portrays.

There's a pervasive and worrying sense of the central issues being gently but undeniably fudged.

Gardens of Stone lacks the narrative focus that it needs for its emotional punches to land, and so it ends up feeling stiff and heavy-handed.