Evergreen

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 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.

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.

Addie Land captures the moments in the life of a teenage girl faced with the disparity between the realities her own family faces as working poor and the middle class prosperity of her peers. She is positioned to make decisions about what she is willing to put on the line to better her circumstances--her family--her virginity--her identity. Finally, a movie for young women with some depth. Addie plays the role of the girl, Henri, and she just adds a freshness to the film--she is a natural on screen. The film is set in the northwest--it has style. I saw the film at Sundance this year but understand it may be coming out to theaters soon. Try to check it out.

Evergreen is a type of film that I particularly enjoy. It deals with the lives of people we might ignore or shun if we encountered them in the course of our own lives. Nevertheless, these people share aspirations and frustrations common to all humanity and the adversities they strive to overcome make such people fascinating.

Evergreen is well written and extremely well acted. The cast can't be faulted on any level. On the other hand, "Gas, Food, Lodging," a film that is, in many respects, similar is vastly superior to this one.

As an experiment with the potential to make movie distribution far more profitable than currently is the case, AMC has converted this film to digital technology and is "feeding" the film to its theaters via satellite. The resultant images are dark, murky and lacking in precise focus. My own large screen TV provides a much superior image and it is not "state-of-the art" technology.

I will not be seeing any more films that employ this crude technology. I'd rather wait for the DVD or, even, skip the whole experience.