The Green

If they do gay cinema on Lifetime, this would be the movie that makes it. Michael Gavin (Jason Butler Harner) is a teacher in a small town. Daniel (Cheyenne Jackson) is his gay partner would runs an eatery. Jason is a troubled kid with a dysfunctional family. His mother works all the time and dates the school's janitor who's an abusive douche. The janitor has it in for Michael and convinces the mother that there's an inappropriate relationship with Michael and her son. Soon it blows up and nobody can be counted on to back Michael.

This is melodrama of the highest order. There is a lot of overacting, but more importantly, the writer leaves no stones unthrown. I do not want to dismiss this as unreasonable. That's not what I'm saying. I'm saying it doesn't make a compelling story. You have to leave a sliver of hope. And of course it climaxes in a big action scene. Is it set up well? Not the least.

"... Whoa. Just... whoa," is about all my brain could come up with for the first few minutes after watching the credits roll on this film. While obviously gay material, I was delighted that this didn't remotely come across as one of those 'gay films' we all end up rolling our eyes at; there is none of the campiness, smut factor, or frying-pan-over-the-head- message that seems to plague nearly every film that tackles gay issues. The writing managed to be both tense and sharply witty at the same time, and it was executed phenomenally by both the primary and supporting cast. As a gay man trained to be a high school educator, this issue is certainly something I have had to think about and I believe the film treated it extremely realistically for our current sociopolitical climate. I absolutely recommend this film to anyone who enjoys edgy tension-dramas and social commentary.

.......BUT, kidding aside, this well done work just CANNOT be put into a near 10-STAR rating category, such as enjoyed by "Brokeback Mountain". (Read on for my take as to Why).

Co-Lead performances are of a Good to near Very Good level (but not at that peak achieved by Ledger and Gyllenhaal). Supporting character efforts, particularly female, are very capable....BUT, think back to those we were given, and saw, 6 years ago.

Storyline / Plot (which has been well covered for us by Old Churns-em-Out): I have to award this factor a "Not so much". What we are given is the male teacher suspected / accused of inappropriate contact with a student (okay, yes...this time a young man--but even that's been done before). Then, there's the cautionary advice being given--which we all know will be ignored. And added to the mix are a hidden truth...a misunderstanding...a breakup of lovers---all fairly stock story directions.

AND...none could guess the REAL Bad Guy?? C'mon!!

What I do like, and very much so, is the way in which the ending has been handled. Not all "Sweetness & Flowers"....not "All is Forgiven". INSTEAD.....there is Hope. We are shown Hope.

PS--And speaking of those 4 small letters, which can mean so much in anyone's world.....you movie lovers out there should TAKE HOPE. Because there is yet another little "Teacher / Student" film story now working its way through world film festivals, toward a video release for we Stay-at-Home viewers. And it is one for which I have extremely High Hopes.....hopes stemming from a Newbie Director's last, best effort. That being a great little film called, "Plan B" (what's not to like about that one). This new and now out-on-the-circuit production is titled "ABSENT", and is directed by a young Marco Berger.

****

The main motif , for me, to see this film was the presence in cast of Illeana Douglas. The second - I am teacher and the delicate situation of Michael is pretty realistic.

Indeed, not a great film , part for cliches, part for predactibility and holes, part for drops of unrealistic facta.

But reasonable and, in essence, this is what real matters.

Not brilliant performances but decent ones. Few delicate things fair reminded- from the apparences about neighbors to the attitude of comunity, secrets in couple and the brutal step father traumatizing the poor step son, the support for a good student from a teacher and the interpretation of the others.

But it is only a film. Decent, pretty interesting, correct in essence. And this is the only matter thing.

I'm fairly certain that any gay teacher has a well developed sense of self-preservation as well as a heightened, possibly exaggerated, awareness of the perceptions others have of him as he interacts with people, especially young males, around him. The somewhat annoying Michael seems to be clueless in this regard. His excessive interest in a special scholarship student, whose step-father works as a janitor in the school, and his touching & pawing of this student, borders on the ridiculous. And, aside from raising red flags amongst parents & fellow teachers, any sensible teacher would realize his constant attention to an individual student would only further alienate this "special" student from his peers.

This all appears to come to a head when Michael is putting his hands all over Jason in the school hallway and Jason pushes him away telling him quite loudly to keep his hands off and calling him a faggot … with a carefully staged audience of staff, parents and students standing about in stunned silence.

Of course, in this fairy tale everyone in the small town (a sort of green Camelot) had been just peachy keen enthusiastic about Michael and his gay lover moving there from NY, one becoming a teacher, the other opening a business. But as soon as Jason makes it clear he doesn't like all the touchy-feely hands-on concern from Michael, the brown stuff hits the fan and things are no longer idyllic green.

To burnish this mediocre soap opera's credentials, we've got someone with cancer, we've got a lecherous step-father (in the lowly profession of janitor, wandering about unshaven to make sure we know he's a bad guy), we've got everyone from a roofing contractor to the town's busybody cancelling contracts with Michael and partner as well as shunning them in public. And it turns out our supposed victim-stroke-hero has a prior arrest for indecent exposure. One isn't quite sure if the whole thing wasn't actually intended to lampoon more credible and well-scripted stories about damaging accusations and their painful consequences.

Not to fear. The bad guy gets shot and all is well in the credulity- stretching, hackneyed, rushed conclusion to a cliché-ridden movie populated by all the popular PC stereotypical characters.

And, like Pavlov's dogs responding to the bells, all the soap opera loving politically correct reviewers gush and gasp. A reasonably serious subject treated like a cartoon. Sad, superficial and trite.