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EVERGREEN

This round in the cinematic class struggle I’d have to give to the decadent bourgeoisie. First-time director Enid Zentelis doesn’t seem to understand that just because you’re lumpen poor, come from a broken family, and have a bad haircut and a Latvian grandmother, you’re not necessarily a sympathetic character. Henri (Addie Land) can’t stand her long-suffering, ineffectual mom, Kate (Cara Seymour), and she’s just about had it when their vagabondage takes them to grandma’s battered shack somewhere in the Pacific Northwest (hence the title and the recurrent image of conifers connoting fidelity, longevity, integrity, and other things this film lacks). By chance, Henri meets handsome Chat (Noah Fleiss) in her new school and more or less adopts his eccentric, tacky, but wealthy household. The embarrassing, sacrificing mom and the ungrateful, treacherous daughter are staples in a melodramatic mini-genre that goes back at least as far as Stella Dallas, but it usually works only when the rich folks, despite their surface allure, prove in the end hollow and shabby. Played by Bruce Davison (who was a similar white-bread dad in Crazy/Beautiful) and Mary Kay Place, Chat’s parents may be more screwed up, but there’s no denying they make for better company. (86 minutes)

BY PETER KEOUGH

Issue Date: September 10 - 16, 2004
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