A 29-year old slacker
discovers his hidden obsession with making money in the Canadian low-budget
Everything’s Gone Green, a film by Paul Fox that has nothing to do with
the physical environment, only the environment inhabited by our souls.
Written by Canadian author of Generation X fame, Douglas Coupland, the
film shows Vancouver, British Columbia as it was meant to be seen, not
a stand-in for Los Angeles but as a vibrant multi-cultural city filled
with exquisite parks, bays, and mountains. Coupland smartly attempts to
have us appreciate the difference between things that are real and things
that are made to look real but the film is undone by contrivances and ludicrous
subplots such as parents growing pot in their basement, a boss allowing
workers to gather around a computer to watch porn, and an office cruise
from hell that give it the air of a bad television sitcom.
Ryan (Paulo Costanzo)
is a 29-year old Technical Writer living with his girl friend Heather in
the city of Vancouver, British Columbia. In one bad day, he loses his job,
is kicked out of his girl friend’s apartment, and discovers that his father
has lost his job of twenty five years. To top that, he is called home only
to find out that his parents were mistakenly convinced that they won the
lottery. Soon Ryan is back on his feet, however, with a job working for
the BC Lottery Board taking pictures and interviewing lottery winners for
a supermarket throwaway magazine. Good fortune also surfaces the same day
when his brother, a real-estate mogul, offers him a free condo in a high-rise
overlooking English Bay.
After Ryan hears on the
radio that a whale has beached on English Bay under the Burrard Bridge,
he drives over to have a look, telling people around him that he went because
he wanted to believe that magical things can happen in life. At the beach,
he strikes up a conversation with Ming (Steph Song), a set dresser for
a film studio whose job is to change Vancouver into a U.S. city such as
Phoenix or Los Angeles to appeal to the American market. It is not long
before Ming’s boyfriend Bryce (JR Bourne), a sleazy scam operator, invites
the gullible Ryan into playing golf with him and succeeds in convincing
him to use the information he obtains from the Lottery Bureau to engage
in a money laundering scheme involving the Japanese Yazuka. Ryan, contrary
to the values he expressed earlier, discovers the drive to make money at
whatever cost is more persuasive than he thought but it seems out of character
and is unconvincing.
In the vein of formulaic
romantic comedies, an on-again off-again love interest develops between
Ryan and Ming but there is little chemistry between the two and when she
dumps the corrupt Bryce, she is in no mood to take on another relationship
with another ethically-challenged individual. Everything’s Gone Green is
a pleasant film with some good in jokes about leaky condos, lottery winners,
and Hollywood productions with artificial palm trees, but ultimately it
is too slight and too conventional to really hit its targets with much
impact. Sadly, the sharp writing of Coupland, excellent performances from
Canadian actors, and the visual delights of Vancouver do not add up to
a totally winning combination.