The Green

The Green, dir. Steven Williford, 2010 USA, 90 min. 
Fri. 6/17, 7:00 p.m. @ Castro

Michael (Jason Butler Harner) and
Daniel (Cheyenne Jackson)

Michael (Jason Butler Harner) and Daniel (Cheyenne Jackson, most recently the Glee team’s nemesis Dustin Goolsby) were living in the New York City, but Michael’s yearning for something a bit more small-town — some place where he could see green — led them to the Connecticut countryside. Michael is working as a teacher at a private school, and Daniel has a catering business. Things are going well until Michael is accused of molesting one of the students, a boy named Jason (Chris Bert) who is clearly having problems in his home life. Jason’s recovering-alcoholic mom is dating the groundskeeper of the school, a man who seems indifferent at best to Jason and openly suspicious of Michael.

The mere fact of the allegation turns most of the town against Michael, and against Daniel by associa­tion, but of course the protagonists have some pre­judg­ments of their own against some of the townsfolk. The characters are well drawn, as Daniel chafes at the provinciality of his surroundings, and then reels at the unexpected revelation of something from Michael’s past. Michael, for his part, digs in his heels, refusing to believe that a false accusation — even compounded with an out-of-context embar­rass­ment from years ago — could go anywhere, and bewildered that the situation seems to be driving a wedge into his home life. Well done, highly recommended.