**1/2 (out of ****)
Starring Clive Owen, Helen Mirren, and David Kelly.
Directed & written by Joel Herschman
2001 R
“Greenfingers” is a sweet, well-meaning little movie about convicts who learn to garden and end up entering a world-renowned gardening competition. The movie’s heart is in the right place and it is sincere about responsibility, self-respect, and self-direction coming from watching pretty things grow. I enjoyed “Greenfingers,” but my experience was dampened by a routine treatment of the storyline. “Greenfingers”—like “The Full Monty,” “Rocky,” “Funny Face,” most Adam Sandler movies, and countless other films that end with a competition or a performance of some kind—follows the same time-honored plot points of the hero being out-of-place, finding a mentor, finding his talent, making friends out of his enemies, learning hope through his talent, entering the competition, something going wrong the night before, then at the last minute everything coming together in time. Granted, “Greenfingers” doesn’t follow this pattern exactly, but for all its good acting, sincerity, and energy it doesn’t put as much new spin on the material as it could. That doesn’t mean I didn’t like the movie, it just means that my attention strayed when I could predict what was going to happen next.
Collin Briggs (Clive Owen of “Croupier” and “Gosford Park”) thinks he’ll be serving a life sentence, or at least will never be able to cope with life outside of prison ever again. His plight is that he has lost the ability to make decisions for himself. He hates himself a lot and would rather let the prison system—which he only hates some—make the decisions for him. He does not react well when he’s transferred to a new facility which allows him more freedom, but his persistent cellmate Fergus (David Kelly, so wonderful in “Waking Ned Devine”) convinces him to take up gardening, and so one thing, with the support of the prison wardens, leads to another. Soon an author of gardening books (Helen Mirren, also of “Gosford Park,” but wonderfully different as a ditzy flower lady who wears giant hats) has taken an interest in the convicts’ garden.
Although “Greenfingers” has lots of swearing and doesn’t shy away from stating in plain English—or at least Cockney—what crimes these men have committed, its atmosphere is lighter than a prison drama, and that bittersweet jolliness comes across in a few too many scenes of the hardened criminals gardening to acoustic guitar pop hits. The performances from Owen, Mirren, and Kelly are as strong as you would expect if you’re familiar with their other work, there are some good laughs along the way, and the film features several genuinely touching moments between gardener and garden. Still, the movie is based on actual events, which leads me to believe that, despite all its good intentions, by plugging these men into a formula, “Greenfingers” may be doing them a small disservice. After all, prison made them into robots, but through determination they turned their lives around and decided to have some say in their destinies.
But…so many pretty gardens. Not many comedies are as sincere as “Greenfingers;” it is sincere when it quotes George Bernard Shaw about finding God in a garden, and it is sincere about rehabilitation. My wife has a rose bush she had to viciously trim for the winter, and after weeks of pointing her little finger at it and ordering it to grow, green has started to sprout. I can guess how proud those men must have been of their wildflower garden.
WHAT MY DAMN WIFE THINKS (Imagine her dragging something heavy while I sip something light): “I’d put this in the same category as Waking Ned Devine and The Full Monty. Although this film is not as good, it’s enjoyable in the same way. I knew most of the plot before it happened, but it was still fun to watch. Most movies can’t be so sincere, dare I say even cute, and yet present the darker side of the characters as well.”
Finished March 12, 2002
Copyright 2002 Friday & Saturday Night