Saving Grace

A comedy set in a small village in the south-west of England. Grace's husband dies. After the funeral the situation comes out: he spent everything, left debts and the house is mortgaged. The banks are at the door. The one thing Grace knows is gardening. She has a greenhouse, grows rare plants and is known in the village for it. Her gardener Matthew has a few plants of his own and they are not doing well. Grace looks at them and understands what they are. She makes a proposal: they will give the whole greenhouse to that plant. From there the film is a story of production: heat, light, watering and harvest. Grace takes the work seriously and the result is very successful. Then the question of selling arises. She goes to London to look for a buyer; that section is the tensest and the funniest part. The villagers know and nobody complains; everyone has a reason. What the narrative is interested in is not crime but a woman trying to stand on her own feet and a village gathering around her. Brenda Blethyn plays Grace and Craig Ferguson plays Matthew; Ferguson also wrote the screenplay. Martin Clunes and Tcheky Karyo are in the cast. Nigel Cole directed. An enjoyable choice for anyone who likes English village comedy. For a viewer troubled by the subject, the film treats the growing of drugs in a light and comic frame.