Product: Greenfingers [Region 2] (2002)
Rating: 5.0
Clive Owen, another UKer to watch
And yet another big up and coming UK acting talent: Clive Owen. He shows quite a range too judging from the blend of comedy and drama he brings to this role and then outright drama in "Croupier." Owen is a murderer who is serving out what looks like a lifetime prison sentence. However, he is selected as a trial prisoner at a rehab facility that's purpose is to give him employable skills. There he finds the passion of his life: gardening. He also finds an older prisoner as his first and only friend in life, soon to be followed by other prisoners he lets into his gardening circle plus the warden himself. Gardening in the UK is considered quite an art form in and of itself, unlike the way it is considered in the USA, and that is the way this film deals with it. Helen Mirren plays the grand dame of UK gardening wonderfully, sort of a Barbara Cartland, Martha Stewart and Julia Child, all rolled as one into the UK gardening world. Owen becomes romantically attached to her daughter. This is a very charming movie that works on many levels. Hubby really liked this film so I'm not going to warn the men that it might be considered a chick flick.