Movies Reviews

Green – Movie Review

By Ron Wilkinson Jul 14, 2011, 14:27 GMT

A slow but sure essay on the strengths and weaknesses of love and possession.

Emerging filmmaker Sophia Takal directs, writes and stars in this mumblecore coming-of-age saga about young people coming to grips with love.

Actually, it is about the young people, Sebastian and Genevieve, coming to grips with their own feelings and reactions to love. Falling in love is one thing but dealing with the social ramifications of emotional involvement is quite a different thing.

New York City dwellers Sebastian (Lawrence Michael Levine) and Genevieve (Kate Lyn Sheil) take a summer rental to allow him to concentrate on finishing his latest magazine article. The article is to be based on his adventures going back to nature and raising his own crops. It will be funny and might even mention his significant other.

Thus, the film starts with a rocky relationship between the two protagonists. Sheil is able to convey a sublime reticence about the whole adventure.

The plan itself is plainly lame when viewed through any but the most rose-colored glasses. The fact that Genevieve goes along with the joke is a measure of her love for Sebastian, it spite of the fact that he does not seem to get it.

The two are no sooner moved into their temporary summer hideaway than a neighbor bursts into the house and makes herself at home. In fact, she was already at home in the house long before the two arrived. It is the house of her friend who told her nothing about the summer rental plan.

At this point, the film could develop into a good horror-thriller with the landlord high tailing it out of dodge to escape the wrath of mutant zombies, or the next-door neighbor turning out to be a psycho killer.

Instead, the plot takes a more measured approach with Robin (Takal) turning on the charm to get to know the distant and ill-at-ease New Yorkers.

Robin is relentless in her pursuit of bonding with the new couple who cannot relate to her incessant and inexplicable friendliness. As city folk they are do not understand why people can sometimes be friendly to strangers simply because there are so few of them around.

In the city, the phenomena of a lack of humanity is not an everyday occurrence.

Writer/director Takal is able to use this scenario to explore the uneasiness that Genevieve, especially, feels about her relationship with Sebastian and her concerns about Robin’s possible hidden agenda.

The more she suspects Sebastian is returning Robin's aggressive friendliness the harder it is for her to make love to him. The less intimate they become, the more Genevieve worries about Robin taking advantage of the situation.

We never know the whole story about Robin, about why her seemingly best buddy next door left his house to strangers without telling her. Robin fends off our suspicions with her non-stop country girl rambling and her helpful offers. She is inscrutable as either a lonely person looking for friends or a manipulative sex starved woman looking to exact her vengeance on the naïve newcomers.

Takal uses the lush green of the fertile over-grown farmland to contrast with the green envy that slowly saturates Genevieve’s emotions and the green lucre that Sebastian hopes to extract from the rural environment.

The shots in town are few and far between but they are as real as they get. A few minutes of two locals talking against the backdrop of the old pick-up is enough, thank you.

As the tension rises the film departs from realism into dreams as the protagonists are forced to confront their innermost feelings and take the next step forward. The decisions made are not necessarily the decisions viewers would have made.

Those watching the film are left to think about what comes next and what they might have done better. Or what in the world anybody would do writing a magazine piece in the wilderness unless they were Jack Nicholson and Shelley Duvall.

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Directed and Written by: Sophia Takal
Starring: Kate Lyn Sheil, Sophia Takal and Lawrence Michael Levine 
Release Date: BAM CinemaFest—Embargo until June 17, 2011
MPAA: Not Rated
Runtime: xx minutes
Country: USA
Language: English
Color: Color