Evergreen

Hi

I was also at the AMC when Enid turned up, personally I really enjoyed the film, the characters and cast were good. A few of the relationships were a little weak, however it was the sudden and predictable ending which was a shame, it would have been better not to be happy ever after as life never is! … for a first time director you should watch this – for anyone to get this far and get a run on 100 odd AMC screens for an independent Enid must have put in a LOT of effort to get that far. Support Independent filmmakers!

Woody

Single moms with teenage daughters are heroes for our times: They must be self reliant, tough, tender and suffer the slings and arrows of a culture that worships youth, which in the teen years is unremittingly disrespectful of the adults that made that culture possible. Writer/director Enid Zentelis has a first feature, 'Evergreen,' which minimally shows some of that teenage rebellion but mostly gives a realistic and rarely obnoxious (Remember Holly Hunter's harried mom in 'Thirteen'?) account of a mother Kate (Cara Seymour, 'Adaptation') and her teen daughter, Henri (talented newcomer Addie Land) starting life again in Tulalip, Washington (filmed in Everett). Kate's vision for Henri says everything about the limits of poverty, the narrow field of expectation, and the accompanying deficiency of taste: "Someday you could manage a fancy department store."

Zentelis approaches cliché territory by showing how impoverished this couple is (Grandma's apartment leaks literal buckets) and how rich Henri's boyfriend, Chat (Noah Fleiss, 'Bringing Rain') is (He drives a Jeep Cherokee)-both rich and poor share the stereotypes of the former wanting out of poverty and the latter corrupted by privilege. Yet the director never condescends to either, for she seems to respect their limitations: Chat's mother, Susan (Mary Kay Place, 'Sweet Home Alabama'), is agoraphobic and father, Frank (Bruce Davison, 'Rules of the Game') an alcoholic; Kate has self image problems, and Henri is ashamed of their poverty (Shame accompanies most teens like acne anyway).

The film delves not deeply into any of these characters while making a full study of the trappings and trials of wealth and poverty. It does, however, have a fully round character in Jim (Gary Farmer, 'Adaptation'), a Native American casino dealer who sees better than anyone the goodness of Kate and Henri, though he knows Henri stole money from him and doesn't know that Kate stole booze from Chat's parents. He is open and loving, perhaps the very spirit of the Pacific Northwest.

'Anywhere But Here,' 'Tumbleweeds,' and the well-known 'Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore' all deal with the rambling mom and daughter. In each we can be reminded of Jane Erskine Stuart's notion that 'in no order of things is adolescence the time pf the simple life.' 'Evergreen' contributes a minimalist realism to the genre while missing crisp dialogue and character development (except for Henri) to make it stand out.

'Evergreen' is a fair representation of the 'indie' spirit and a reminder of its limitations.

(This film is played only in AMC theaters through Digital Theater Distribution System [DTDS], which feeds directly from satellite, obviating the need for film reels. Our image was digital dull.)

Noah Fleiss ("Brick", "Things You Can Tell Just By Looking at Her") certainly saved this movie from total oblivion. Unfortunately, the movie was based on the believability of Henri (Addie Land) as a girl from a low-income family wanting a change, and the believability wasn't there. Henri seemed more like an affluent California girl pretending to be from a poor family, which was not what the director intended nor what we wanted to see. Chat (Fleiss), however, was supposed to provide us with a picture of a shallow affluent teen male, a living cliché, and that is precisely what we got -- effective and, in the final analysis, humorously absurd. Fleiss dependably surprises with the convincing quality of his roles, and this one was so well done that I rather think there might be viewers who thought Fleiss himself was shallow.

Although the remainder of the movie has little to recommend it, go into it expecting only to see a gem of a performance by Noah Fleiss and you will in no way be disappointed.

I saw "Evergreen" at the Seattle International Film Festival in May. I especially recommend this movie to teens. They will relate to the mother/daughter relationship in this movie. I understand this is the first movie the lead actor, Addie Land, has been in. Her acting was wonderful and made the movie more special.

Addie's performance reminded me of Ashley Judd in "Ruby in Paradise". I hope we see more of her in the future. Great talent! BL SE

This film attempts admirably to show the pain of adolescence, especially in a poor family. Unfortunately it lacks the quality of acting and direction to give it real impact. We are distracted by the fact that some of the characters at least don't seem real and the actors often don't seem to be "on the same page".

This viewer made the mistake of taking at face value a reviewer's rating of four stars - a reviewer I didn't even know! - and then being disappointed. My own fault!

Perhaps if I had entered the room with different expectations, or been given the realization that this movie was truly a first time effort or compromised somewhat by low budget I would have been able to be more charitable - and possibly derived more enjoyment from it. But alas the unknown reviewer gave it a glowing rating. Too bad.