Movies of the Week
Everything's Gone Green, Black Book
See it or skip it? This week's new movie releases By Paul Matthews
Everything’s Gone Green
British Columbian novelist Douglas Coupland (Generation X, JPod) has never been very interested in character development or discernible story arcs. Rather, his characters and plots are vehicles for elucidating the author’s quirky and penetrating take on modern life. But while Coupland’s fiction is some of the most offbeat and original being written today, these very qualities are precisely what makes Everything’s Gone Green, the author’s first film script, feel so bewildering onscreen. Ryan (Road Trip’s Paulo Costanzo) is a typical Coupland archetype: hyperaware but tragically disengaged. Ryan works at the B.C. lottery commission, writing tabloid profiles of sweepstakes winners. One day, Ryan meets Ming (Steph Song), a set dresser hired by Hollywood studios to make Vancouver look like various American cities, and her boyfriend, Bryce (J.R. Bourne), a sleazeball who launders money for the Japanese mafia. When Bryce discovers that Ryan works for the lottery commission, he invents a scheme that helps the young writer land a snazzy new ride, some fresh duds and a blond bombshell girlfriend. And why not? It seems as if everyone has a scam these days. Ryan’s brother builds homes for Hong Kong billionaires that they’ll never see, and his parents have a grow-op in their basement. Everything’s Gone Green has a lot to say about our world of virtual relationships, get-rich-quick schemes and perpetual yearning; director Paul Fox does a marvellous job of depicting Vancouver (playing itself for once) as an empty city of majestic steel and glass. Unfortunately, he and his actors can’t cope with Coupland’s dialogue, which, though smart and sardonic, is much fresher and less strained on the page. When Ryan and Ming grow predictably closer, their scenes lack any palpable sexual tension—indeed, both actors often look lost. Coupland fans won’t want to miss this, but others may find it leaves them cold. WAIT FOR THE REPS
Everything Gone’s Green opens Friday at the Varsity (55 Bloor St. W.).