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.