The Green Chain

The Green Chain
Director: Mark Leiren-Young
Classification: STC
Rating: ***

Filmmaker Mark Leiren-Young’s debut feature The Green Chain is a strange and beautiful picture detailing the bittersweet struggle between loggers and environmentalists in a fictitious West Cost town whose perspectives on their shared love for trees are radically different.

Adopting a faux documentary style, the film follows seven characters who offer their personal beliefs about foresting and the environment and Leiren-Young ensures that every one of these fictional people offer a relevant point of view. And if the conceit never feels as organic as its creator intends it to be, the ultimate effect is both moving and, when it needs to be, often hilarious. Leiren-Young’s background is in stand-up comedy and it shows: The Green Chain has little trouble poking fun (especially with the pontifications of a tree hugging stoner) at what is a relatively sombre, serious subject.

The cast, including Battlestar Galactica’s Tricia Helfer and rising star Brendon Fletcher (88 Minutes) are game and manage to sculpt fascinating portraits of small town eccentricity.

The budget for this admittedly oddball left-leaning gem is virtually invisible and it shows (the movie was shot in less than a week) but the director’s affection for the subject matter is infectious. The Green Chain is entertaining, even if the ultimate fate of the planet isn’t the centre of your web.

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