Turning Green

I saw this movie at a film festival and really enjoyed it, but don't let the DVD cover fool you, this movie is actually more of a fun little coming of age drama/comedy than a gangster drama. Like so many indie films it has a few spotty moments, but its charms overwhelm the few problems with it.

Donal Gallery is terrific as James, the young protagonist who has to decide between learning to live to a quaint (but to him, horrible) Irish town or doing whatever it takes to get back to his idealized vision of America. The relationship with his younger brother Pete is great, as the 11 year old doesn't seem to have the conflicts his older brother has. He's content to make a life in Ireland, despite how much James tries to convince him to hold onto his American roots. There are some very sweet scenes between the two. Alessandro Nivola is also quite good as Bill the Bookie and Timothy Hutton is almost unrecognizable in a cameo turn as Bill the Breaker. I could've used a little more character expansion on those two and their relationship with James. Colm Meaney also appears as a sort of ne'er to well, and something of a father figure to our displaced anti-hero.

Oddly, the version I saw at the festival had a completely different ending - I don't want to spoil it, but it was more in keeping with the rest of the movie's tone. It was funnier and had the same wistful quality as this one. I loved it. I'm not sure why the powers that be decided to opt with this version, which is the weakest point of the film. Despite that, it's a really fresh movie that I would recommend.

TURNING GREEN is an interesting title for this well made film about an American boy surviving in Ireland. Written and directed by Michael Aimette and John G. Hoffman the story takes place in the 1970s in a little town in Ireland. 16-year-old James Powers (Donal Gallery, a very promising new actor on the screen) and his little brother Pete (Killian Morgan, also a find) are of Irish ancestry but were born in the United States. When their mother dies they are sent to Ireland to live with their three 'heinous aunts' - Aunt Nora (Brid Ni Chionaola), Aunt Maggie (Deirdre Monaghan) and Aunt Mary (Billie Traynor) - who keep a tight fist on the boys and disrupt the only pleasure James has, that of extended onanism with the door to the loo locked. James and Pete want to go back to America. Their only real friend is Tom (Colm Meany), but they are bonded to Bill the Bookie (Alessandro Nivola) to make money: they collect bets on dog racing for Bill. Bill's assistant Bill the Breaker (Timothy Hutton) is the cruel one who beats up insolvent debtors and keeps the boys frightened enough to stay in line.

James and Pete are sent to London by their Aunts to see if James has a physical problem that keeps him in a locked loo so much of the time. In London they encounter a magazine salesman who specializes in girlie magazines, illegal in Ireland. James works out a deal to sell the magazines when he returns to Ireland and both James and Pete do very well in their new business. But Bill the Bookie catches on to their secret manner of making money and the results of this discovery changes the lives of James and Pete and others - but not an end to James' compulsion to go back to America.

The story is brief but the acting by all concerned is absolutely first rate. Donal Gallery is a very fine young actor and manages to make us not only believe in the character he has created but to also to root for his success. He balances humor with fear and anger in a well-considered way. Nivola and Hutton continue to impress as first-rate actors and the supporting cast is rich in cherishable characters. The intoxicating musical score is by Pull and the scenery of Ireland has never seemed so beautiful. This is a fine little independent film that deserves a lot of attention. Grady Harp, December 10