Nightstream: The Greenhouse (2021)

Nightstream Screening: THE GREENHOUSE (2021)

Dir. Thomas Wilson-White

What if you could find a way to hide out inside your memories? In this scenario you would be physically present inside a moment staring at how you handled a rough situation or watching a loved one live out their grief. You would also see the joys of childhood. You could relive the time when you and your siblings were a family. Before you grew up and grew apart. Those times when you laughed with each other around a dinner table. You would share in the hope as well as the despair. Maybe leaving this past self behind can help you repair the present. Is it a time machine or just years of psychotherapy condensed into a few short hours?

Thomas Wilson-White’s feature debut is ambitious in its scope. It shows pure talent in his ability to portray simultaneous events from varying viewpoints. He does so without creating confusion or diving into a science fiction toolbox to grab old cliches. The Greenhouse was never intended to be a mind-bending sci-fi film, instead it wraps a relatable family drama around time travel tropes.

Ruth and Lillian created a fabulous life together and raised four children into adulthood. When Lillian passed, the family suffered. Beth stayed to look after Ruth while the other siblings went their separate ways. Ruth’s 60 birthday approaches and the family comes together for the first time since the death of their mother. During this celebration weekend, Beth finds a portal that leads deep into her memory. Confronted with the past, Beth begins to lose track of her present.

While wandering from room to room within disorganized memories, the meditative nature of The Greenhouse feels akin to Andrei Tarkovsky’s Solaris (1972). With a quicker pace for sure, one driven by the performances of all its actors. The photography matches the incongruent realms of melancholy and naive happiness while never seeming overt in its intention. There is no blue filter for sad or orange filter for happy. Instead, like the film as a whole, there are comforting flourishes that emphasize emotion. Wilson-White never tries to answer the question of whether or not we need to let go of the past in order to embrace our future. The Greenhouse allows each of us to reflect and answer this for ourselves.