DVD The Green

"… Whoa. Just… whoa," is about all my brain could come up with for the first few minutes after watching the credits roll on this film. While obviously gay material, I was delighted that this didn't remotely come across as one of those 'gay films' we all end up rolling our eyes at; there is none of the campiness, smut factor, or frying-pan-over-the-head- message that seems to plague nearly every film that tackles gay issues. The writing managed to be both tense and sharply witty at the same time, and it was executed phenomenally by both the primary and supporting cast. As a gay man trained to be a high school educator, this issue is certainly something I have had to think about and I believe the film treated it extremely realistically for our current sociopolitical climate. I absolutely recommend this film to anyone who enjoys edgy tension-dramas and social commentary.

"The Green" takes up with a gay male couple who has moved from NYC to southern Connecticut. One, Michael, played by Jason Butler Harner, is a history teacher in the town that's built around the green of the movie's title; the other, Daniel, portrayed by Cheyenne Jackson, works as a caterer but seems less committed to keeping away from NYC. We learn they're renovating a classic old home, that they've been a couple for years but haven't yet taken advantage of the new right to marry, and that Michael seems to be devoting a suspicious amount of time to one of his pupils, Jason Williams. Through a series of misunderstandings, Michael is accused of molesting Jason, and much of the movie revolves around Michael and Daniel, coping as a couple with the accusation of molestation, the town's rejection of them, and what it means for them as men, and as men who love one another.

If their relationship as a couple is meant to be the main story line in this movie, "The Green" dramatizes their dynamics sensitively and engagingly: Michael has never told Daniel about a previous arrest he once had as a result of a Manhattan police officer's entrapment in a men's room. Daniel drags in previously unspoken resentment at Michael's insistence they leave New York. They both work with a lesbian lawyer, played by Julia Ormond, whose tough but sensitive counsel gets them through the ordeal. We come to understand them in terms of why a gay-male couple might stay together without marrying, even when they could tie the knot. We see them, as seen by the rest of the town, assumed to be guilty as soon as the accusation is made. We want them to get back together when they seem less able as a couple to deal with the pressures that the town, and all of their friends there, begin to apply.

The storyline that dramatizes their couple-hood, though, never really holds up or makes any logical sense. The story never explores Jason's motivations in accusing Michael, disappearing without pressing any charges for several days, and then resurfacing, to reveal in macabre ways that a man who is either his stepfather or his mother's boyfriend is the true, physical abuser. The school acts as though Michael is already convicted, though they have no evidence against him to prove the accusation. The character of Michael never really explains or justifies his interest in Jason as to why a busy history teacher would have so much extracurricular attention left over for Jason in the first place. If the couple's individual dynamics have us cheering them on, the story they're trapped in the middle of just leaves us scratching our heads.

It all plays out in a denouement that suddenly and rather improbably reverses all of the blame for the boy's troubles onto his stepfather's shoulders instead. Michael seems just as quickly exonerated, and we're left to believe he and Daniel reconcile and continue as a couple, probably somewhere other than in this no-longer bucolic or ideal town. A freak rainstorm during the climactic moments is just uncanny in its excellent timing, as though the film makers didn't know the pathetic fallacy is the oldest trope in the book. Jason has all of six or seven lines to speak in the entire production, and his mute air of adolescent angst doesn't invite curiosity into what makes him tick, nor explain what Michael could possibly see in him to make him risk so much of his career for his sake. The story's coherence seems sacrificed for the sake of a deeper understanding of Michael and Daniel's personalities, and the denouement and resolution seem laughably quick, given how much time we've spent building this story and getting to know these characters.

"The Green" does steer clear of gay clichés as it sensitively treats two believable gay men and the differences that legal troubles and the possibility of marrying make in their shared lives. Too bad the storyline never matched the impressive depth of character here; if it had, queer teachers (like me) might have had a better, more culturally valuable, movie on our hands.