Everything's Gone Green

Shot in beautiful British Columbia, the low-budget Canadian import, "Everything's Gone Green," is not, as the title might suggest, yet another Al Gore environmental documentary, but rather a witty, incisive meditation on how we choose to define "success" in the modern world.

Ryan is a 29-year-old Vancouver resident whose life is going nowhere fast. In one day alone, he gets dumped by his girlfriend, is fired from his job and discovers that his family HASN'T won the million dollar jackpot that his father mistakenly believed they had. The one ray of sunshine to come out of all of this is that Ryan is offered a job working for the lottery commission, a position he only halfheartedly accepts, but one which eventually leads him to think long and hard about what it is he truly wants out of life.

When we first meet him, Ryan is a man deeply bored and unhappy with his life but utterly unsure of how to go about changing it. On the one hand, he dreads the prospect of devoting decades of his life to a tedious, unfulfilling job, yet, on the other, he finds himself yearning to join his boyhood chums already comfortably ensconced in the great middle class. Ryan must figure out if achieving financial success will require a total abandonment of youthful idealism or if there is some way to retain one's principles and still have all the material wealth he could possibly want. Indeed when he takes a good look at all the people around him - be they his slacker buddy, the yuppie boyfriend of the girl he's fallen for, the lottery winners he is forced to interview, or even his very own parents - he discovers that they have all found ways to make ends meet without having to work very hard at it. And what does it really matter if those folks have to break a law or two or indulge in some shady and immoral enterprise to get their hands on some cash? It's all part of the lure of Easy Money and the cult-like addiction that comes along with it. It's only when Ryan decides to get a little of his own in the same way that his real crisis of character begins.

Douglas Coupland has written a smart, thoughtful script that finds humor in the off-kilter incongruities of daily life: Ryan's being the sole occupant of an otherwise empty, multi-story skyscraper; his clean-cut, retirement-age parents being arrested for farming pot in the family basement; his love interest whose job as a movie set designer is to make Vancouver, Canada look like any part of the world other than Vancouver, Canada (in a very clever swipe at "runaway" American film-making). Director Paul Fox brings an offbeat sensibility to the material without overemphasizing the "quirkiness" factor, as so many other independent filmmakers are wont to do. The atmosphere is heightened to be sure, but he is also careful to keep the story and the comedy sufficiently grounded in the real world so we can more easily identify with the characters.

As Ryan, Paulo Costanzo may not have conventional movie-star looks but he has an openness and a regular-guy appeal that make him a compelling lead for this movie. He is matched by the lovely Steph Song as the girl who has made some compromises of her own in her lifetime but who has the intestinal fortitude and good sense to pull herself back from the abyss before she hurls right on over it. JR Bourne could easily have turned his amoral yuppie character into little more than a two-dimensional Waspy villain, but instead he makes him both sad and strangely likable at one and the same time. Finally, Susan Hogan and Tom Butler steal any number of scenes as Ryan's late-blooming, dope-growing parents.

Old-fashioned in its message and theme, yet utterly modern in its style and tone, "Everything's Gone Green" admonishes us in a lighthearted and playful way to heed that long-established warning that money can indeed not buy happiness. It's nice to be reminded of that every once in awhile.

What a pleasure to watch a Canadian movie that's not embarrassingly low budget and poorly acted. I am sure it was low budget, but if so, it was effectively done. I don't see what a bigger budget could have added. It was well-acted, especially by Paulo Costanzo. His performance was understated and very natural.

I love that (metro) Vancouver is so proudly and unabashedly itself here, in all its multifaceted glory, from the run-down houses of Strathcona to the posh golf course of Lion's Bay, with the gorgeous mountains of Howe Sound receding into the distance. For once, Vancouver did not play a stand-in for some other city, a common practice which features in the storyline.

What a funny, charming, and visually appealing film, a breath of fresh air in many ways. I hope to see more from the both the film-maker and lead actor!

A 29-year old slacker discovers his hidden obsession with making money in the Canadian low-budget Everything's Gone Green, a film by Paul Fox that has nothing to do with the physical environment, only the environment inhabited by our souls. Written by Canadian author of Generation X fame, Douglas Coupland, the film shows Vancouver, British Columbia as it was meant to be seen, not a stand-in for Los Angeles but as a vibrant multi-cultural city filled with exquisite parks, bays, and mountains. Coupland smartly attempts to have us appreciate the difference between things that are real and things that are made to look real but the film is undone by contrivances and ludicrous subplots such as parents growing pot in their basement, a boss allowing workers to gather around a computer to watch porn, and an office cruise from hell that give it the air of a bad television sitcom.

Ryan (Paulo Costanzo) is a 29-year old Technical Writer living with his girl friend Heather in the city of Vancouver, British Columbia. In one bad day, he loses his job, is kicked out of his girl friend's apartment, and discovers that his father has lost his job of twenty five years. To top that, he is called home only to find out that his parents were mistakenly convinced that they won the lottery. Soon Ryan is back on his feet, however, with a job working for the BC Lottery Board taking pictures and interviewing lottery winners for a supermarket throwaway magazine. Good fortune also surfaces the same day when his brother, a real-estate mogul, offers him a free condo in a high-rise overlooking English Bay.

After Ryan hears on the radio that a whale has beached on English Bay under the Burrard Bridge, he drives over to have a look, telling people around him that he went because he wanted to believe that magical things can happen in life. At the beach, he strikes up a conversation with Ming (Steph Song), a set dresser for a film studio whose job is to change Vancouver into a U.S. city such as Phoenix or Los Angeles to appeal to the American market. It is not long before Ming's boyfriend Bryce (JR Bourne), a sleazy scam operator, invites the gullible Ryan into playing golf with him and succeeds in convincing him to use the information he obtains from the Lottery Bureau to engage in a money laundering scheme involving the Japanese Yazuka. Ryan, contrary to the values he expressed earlier, discovers the drive to make money at whatever cost is more persuasive than he thought but it seems out of character and is unconvincing.

In the vein of formulaic romantic comedies, an on-again off-again love interest develops between Ryan and Ming but there is little chemistry between the two and when she dumps the corrupt Bryce, she is in no mood to take on another relationship with another ethically-challenged individual. Everything's Gone Green is a pleasant film with some good in jokes about leaky condos, lottery winners, and Hollywood productions with artificial palm trees, but ultimately it is too slight and too conventional to really hit its targets with much impact. Sadly, the sharp writing of Coupland, excellent performances from Canadian actors, and the visual delights of Vancouver do not add up to a totally winning combination.

I saw this film at TIFF and I couldn't believe how well it captured Vancouver, the quiet star of the film. My criteria for evaluating a film is simple: would I recommend it to a friend? And, this is one film I would. As a former Vancouver resident I loved watching the nuances of life in the city captured on film. It's Vancouver as Vancouver, not New York or Chicago or Los Angeles. If you've never been or aren't familiar with West Coast life then it may seem a little strange...seriously, most Vancouverites could secretly admit to knowing someone in their group of family and friends who have a grow-op in the basement. The relationship between Ryan (Paul Costanzo) and Ming (Steph Song) is sweet and charming, and much like that of many typical Gen-X characters in Douglas Coupland's books. That said, if you're a Coupland fan, you'll love this film.

This film is about a young unemployed man getting tempted to help with money laundering.

The main character, Ryan, is developed well at first. However, towards the middle of the film, his portrayal becomes superficial and perfunctory. There is not enough self soul searching to make me convince that he really wants to quit the illegal business. The other characters in the film are shallow and fails to connect to me. The plot is rather plain, there is not much happening after the first 20 minutes apart from some scenes that are meant for a quick laugh. I find this film rather boring to watch. I had hopes for the film that it would be interesting, thrilling or thought provoking. The film leaves me rather dissatisfied.