Everything's Gone Green
Directed by Paul Fox
Reviewed by Marigold Edwards
I purposely did not read any reviews or synopses of Everything's Gone Green before viewing the film. In fact, I had no preconceived notions whatsoever about it other than that it was made in Vancouver. Lo and behold.... it's actually set in Vancouver too! Vancouver never looked more like Vancouver before except for the lack of rainy days during which it was shot.
I then read Katherine Monk's review and at first I wondered if she'd ever set foot in the city let alone seen the film. Her opening comments about the Vancouver attitude that work is for "losers" and their belief that "just about everything worthwhile in life should come easily" are way off the mark.
Rather than expecting everything on a platter, Vancouverites who do not possess all the material trappings of a so-called "successful" life are perceived to be "losers" and may feel compelled to resort to less than honourable means to acquire them. The word "renter" is uttered in the same tone that should be reserved for the real losers who got suckered into buying Vancouver's infamous leaky condos to avoid that very label.
Monk also misses the mark of the circumstances of Ryan (Paulo Costanzo) landing a job with a lottery corporation. Ryan felt like a loser before he started working there. He was not "freshly freed from college" as she surmises but rather "freshly freed" from a dead-end desk job after his boss discovered disgruntled musings on his computer and told him that he needed psychological help (on the same day that his girlfriend dumped him because she felt that he was going nowhere in life).
When he first landed the job, he actually seemed quite enthusiastic about it, proudly displaying his insightful photos of lottery winners in the swanky condo his real estate agent brother set him up in gratuit. It is these pictures that entice his love interest/conscience, Ming (Stephanie Song) not the expensive walls they're hung on.
I also found Monk's condescending comments about director Fox "miraculously" getting the "Vancouver vibe" out of line. What's so miraculous about it? It often takes an outsider to see things clearly and her use of the adverb was childish and unnecessary. Fox put a lot of thought into each scene. His shots of Vancouver's natural beauty juxtaposed against the high-rise jungle of its downtown core enhance the real message of the film - the nature of success.
The most pivotal scene in the film exposes just that. It occurs on Ryan's balcony where Ryan, framed by mountains and ocean, is convinced by Bryce (J.R. Bourne), against a backdrop of concrete towers, to take part in a lottery scam. Our hero then bows to the societal pressures of consumerism and greed, which exposes how the big city concept of success can easily corrupt the gullible.
Vancouver is a city in love with itself. Yes - it does have great physical beauty and a mild climate, but it is still a city like any other where, as touched upon in the opening scenes of the film, the middle class is disappearing. It is a city where those with a mediocre job on a single income struggle to get by and are tempted all too easily by the get-rich-quick schemes of those who are only too happy to take advantage of them.
Even the minor characters in the film - the lottery winners - discover that happiness and peace of mind cannot be measured in material wealth. Sorry Ms Monk... it is the Bryces of the world who buy into society's perception of success at any price who are pathetic not the Ryans and Mings.