The Green

The Green that the title refers to is a small Connecticut affluent seaside town where partners Michael and Daniel have escaped too from New York for a different pace of life.  Wannabe novelist Michael is a high school Drama teacher, and Daniel has started his own restaurant and they are laying down roots refurbishing an old house together.  They have a very small circle of friends, but apart from Daniel’s employee, they strangely seem to be ‘the only gays in the village’.

Michael’s concern for one of his put-upon pupils is soon misconstrued and before too long he is accused by the boy’s stepfather of improper conduct and is arrested by the police and suspended by the school.  The gossip mill works fast in this backwater suburb and within 24 hours both Michael and Daniel are shunned by the entire community.  Except for Daniel’s best friend Trish, who has her own issues as she is dealing with a newly diagnosed cancer, but then Daniel misconstrues her support as latent homophobia and dumps her, and suddenly he’s facing this alone with just a small town litigation lawyer who is way out of his depth.

The lawyer refers him to another attorney in the next town who is better qualified to help Michael fight the false accusations.  She is a lesbian (suddenly the presence of her and her partner doubles the local gay community) and she is good at making Michael deal with the reality of the situation. That also includes a previous police conviction for gross indecency that he had kept quiet from everyone including Daniel, which becomes the final straw for him, and he moves out.

There is a tad too much high-handed melodrama in this wee feature film, which despite all its good intentions just resembles an old-fashioned soap opera.  Not surprising given that this is the debut narrative movie from veteran TV director Steven Williford who cut his teeth on ‘All My Children’ and ‘As The World Turns’.   He has a sterling cast that do their best with an inadequate script that include Jason Butler Harmer, Julia Ormand, Karen Young and Illeana Douglas.  And Cheyenne Jackson as Daniel does an awfully good job of being the handsome partner!

The redeeming factor for me was the unexpected finale that broke with tradition to prove that a happy ending is never guaranteed even when you win. It was the payoff for sitting all the way through this pleasant wee film that sadly never fulfilled its potential.