Evergreen

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

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.)

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

I grew up about 20 minutes outside of Marysville, WA and left that crap town about two minutes after I turned 18. Evergreen is the reason why. The plot may seem slow and manufactured to some, but that's just because they don't have the depth to understand that kind of life. The Pacific Northwest is a unique place: there's poverty with few ways out and the writer accurately displayed its territory of factories and Indian casinos. If your family wasn't in on the Intel or Microsoft boom, then you were likely at the mercy of the Georgia Pacific factory (Toliet Paper) or Bellingham Cold Storage (frozen fish factory). Inidan Reservations can only get support from the government through establishing a Casino, which often wouldn't create the revenues they needed to sustain their initial investments.

Although I had the advantage (or should I say disadvantage) of understanding these characters unique situations because I too, was raised in a four room shack with a leaky roof, we had vermin and a garage with no garage doors, as well as an unmanicured lawn because we couldn't afford to fix the lawnmower- I still believe the writer had a larger responsibility to the audience to which does not understand these circumstances, let alone the little victories and joy in escaping them.

The acting was sympathetic and believable, but the writing could have been strengthened if - instead of being shown the rainy depressing details of the town - we experienced them through the characters. Henri never goes to the edge the way you do when you truly are in poverty like that. Trust me on that. We only saw a little fight here or there, but no significant strain of plot. When you're up against the wall in that kind of poverty - without enough money for "bus fare" and you don't have your own bed as the roof above leaks on you, there are ways of coping. Drugs, alcohol, sex, prostitution, runaways, crime, vandalism...and all we see is just a little more than what a suburbanite kid on an ABC after school special might turn to.

This film couldn't help but grab me because it pulled me back into a place I left 12 years ago with a piece of junk car much like the one Kate's boyfriend drove around in. The grass, trees, sound of rain, the logs, the storefronts, it was all set still in time, and it was the first time I'd been back to that place I never wanted to set foot in again. But not every moviegoer will have this perspective.

Sometimes, there's a reason not to go back, and after seeing this film I now remember why. It left me with that same hopeless, tired, sad feeling that being in a family of victims is as high in life as one can go. Thank God that piece of junk car of mine just kept going. I'd suggest you do the same.

At the Sundance screening of this film, the director told us that the "evergreen" of the title referred to the green envy the main character feels toward those who have so much while she does not. This was a realistic story of a young girl who moves into her grandmother's ramshakle house with her grandmother. They are quite poor, and when the girl (Henri) meets a rich boy at school, she wants to be part of his family. The movie is about Henri's discovery that money doesn't really take away problems. This was good effort for all involved.