TURNING GREEN
Written & Directed by Michael Aimette & John G. Hofmann
Produced by Rob Malkani & Andrew Charas
Released by New Films International
USA/Ireland. 85 min. Not rated
With Donal Gallery, Colm Meaney, Alessandro Nivola, Timothy Hutton & Killian Morgan 
 

After his mother’s death, James (Donal Gallery) is sent to Ireland to live under his aunts’ care. He’s been there for years—long enough to pick up an accent and join the local, small-time mob—but the 16-year-old stubbornly refuses to extend his social network beyond his 11-year-old brother, Pete (Killian Morgan), and a drunken debtor (Colm Meaney). Spurning his strict Irish-Catholic family, who won’t give him enough privacy to masturbate in peace, James comes to hate the country and plots his return to the States.

The film is set in 1979, which is only relevant because pornography was banned in Ireland at the time. His aunts, fearing for James’s health since he spends so much time in the bathroom, send him to a London specialist.  He comes back with a clean bill of health and some girlie magazines. While banging the bishop, he hallucinates that one of the pin-up stars advices him to smuggle skin magazines into Ireland to sell on the sex-starved black market. He orders a boxful from London, and hopes to score enough money for airfare back home for him and Pete, but James forgets only one thing. Although his job with the mob might have given him the connections to make his plan succeed, his boss might not be so thrilled with his lackey’s success.

The superficial scenario does give James his first date, a closer bond with his brother, and even a grudging appreciation of Ireland, but none of these feel like earned growth. None of his actions face repercussions, and his scheme’s immediate financial success bores. Both the end result, ultimately a poorly-wrought gangster tale, and the journey seem lackluster—the concluding montage seems like a sloppy afterthought.

Gallery and Morgan are perfect for the roles, but Meaney, Alessandro Nivola (who plays Bill, the kingpin), and Timothy Hutton (Bill’s henchman) all feel underused, like day players with one-note characters without much time on screen. The cinematography is oddly bland for an Irish period piece. Besides the lack of gadgets and legal porn, there are hardly any other giveaways that would indicate that the film takes place in the 1970s. Zachary Jones
November 13, 2009