Evergreen (2004)

Director:

Enid Zentelis

Writer:

Enid Zentelis (writer)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

A young girl seduced by a boy's affluent, seemingly idyllic family, goes to extremes to gain acceptance and escape her poverty-stricken homelife.

Awards:

1 win & 1 nomination

Cast

Cara Seymour	...	Kate
Mary Kay Place	...	Susan
Noah Fleiss	...	Chat
Gary Farmer	...	Jim
Lynn Cohen	...	Grandmom
Addie Land	...	Henri
Bruce Davison	...	Frank
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
James Jensen	...	Extra
Zach Zulauf	...	Mark Zakowski

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 on appeal for sexual content involving teens, and for language.

Runtime:

USA:86 min (Sundance Film Festival)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Certification:

USA:PG-13

Filming Locations:

Everett, Washington, USA

Company:

Granny Was an Outlaw Productions

Trivia:

Enid Zentelis was at the Sundance Scriptwriters Lab in 2000 with the script for this movie when its title was "Avon Calling".

A fair representation of the 'indie' spirit and a reminder of its limitations.

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.)