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 There is a famous quote by Anton Chekhov about plot devices: "One must not put a loaded rifle on the stage if no one is thinking of firing it." For the film Turning Green, written and directed by Michael Aimette and John G. Hofmann, Chekhov’s gun, as the above quote is referred to, mars an otherwise darkly funny and accomplished small Irish independent film.
Turning Green is the story of James (Donal Gallery, in his feature film debut), a young, disaffected American transplanted to Ireland at the tender age of 10 after his mother dies and his father disowns him. The movie starts in 1979 with James at the age of 16, espousing about how much he hates Ireland. Unfortunately for James, most of Ireland reciprocates the feeling of hatred towards him.
More than anything, James wants to go back to America. He does anything he can to save money to escape from Ireland, including smoking a cigarette, sucking on chaw, throwing snuff up his nose, downing whisky and chugging a pint of beer all at the same time. James hates Ireland so much that he drops out of school and starts hanging out with Bill the Bookie (Alessandro Nivola), an aptly named bookie, and Bill the Bookie’s enforcer, Bill the Breaker (Timothy Hutton). James slowly begins to learn the tricks of Bill the Bookie’s trade, running errands and collecting money for Bill.
 Despite James’s hatred of Ireland, he does have two friends: his 11-year-old brother Pete (Killian Morgan), who has a lisp but hides it in the most creative of ways (success is a “lack of failure”), as well as Tom (Colm Meaney), who is 40 years James’s senior, gruff and angry with a horrible knack for picking the wrong dogs in the dog races and owing Bill the Bookie a substantial amount of money.
James also has a knack for masturbating incessantly. The three aunts he has been forced to live with think he has a constipation problem because he’s in the bathroom so much. They send James to London to see a specialist and there James finds his destiny: importing smut magazines to the porn-free land of Ireland. He does quite well and finds an incredible market in the denizens of the skin magazine-free Emerald Isle. Until, of course, Bill the Bookie finds out he’s selling mags behind his back. Bill the Bookie doesn’t take this well and Bill the Breaker gets to do what he does best: break people.
Turning Green is the feature-film debut of writers/directors Michael Aimette and John G. Hofmann, two Americans with dual citizenship in Ireland. The script was a finalist in the inaugural season of the “Project Greenlight” TV show and was immediately snapped up by producers Rob Malkani and Andrew Charas. The writing in the movie is snappy and pretty spot on with its wry observations of Ireland. If you’ve spent any time in Ireland, you’ll be quite pleased with the characterizations of the citizens of Wicklow. It’s quite apparent that Aimette and Hofmann are better writers than directors, though, as the directing is fairly plain and pedestrian.
 The upside of the simple direction is that the actors get to really show their acting chops. Timothy Hutton gets top billing in the film due to his Academy Award for Ordinary People, but his character is rather minor in the story and rather one-dimensional. Hutton does get props for putting on an excellent Irish accent, though.
The real star of the film is Donal Gallery, playing the main character James. If you hadn’t been told this was his feature film debut, you wouldn’t have known it. It’s a tough task to carry a film for anyone, but Gallery plays James with just the right amount of priggishness and charm to make any audience fall in love with him. It will be a treat to see what he does next.
Another standout in the film is Alessandro Nivola, perhaps best known for his role as Pollux Troy in John Woo’s Face/Off. Nivola gets a lot of character work, but his work here is outstanding playing Bill the Bookie. He brings an intense amount of layering to a character that could have easily been a one-dimensional bad guy. Audiences see how Bill the Bookie cares for James, even when he must punish him.
And that brings us back to Chekhov’s gun. For no discernable reason, during the first act, James picks up Tom’s shotgun while waiting for him to finish getting ready and dry fires it a few times. Immediately, it’s known that this gun will come back to be used in Turning Green. For the majority of the film after that, the audience sits waiting to see when that gun will come back into play. This is too bad, because Turning Green is quite charming and darkly humorous. The writers have a great grasp of character; it’s unfortunate they had to come up with such trite plot devices.
Turning Green is now playing at Laemmle’s Monica 4-plex and AMC Theatres Burbank Town Center.
For more information, visit the film’s official Web site.
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