Saving Grace Reviews

Thoroughly dotty and surprisingly endearing, this UK comedy revolves around the small-town hijinks that ensue when a proper, middle-aged matron turns her greenhouse into a hydroponic dope farm. Tragedy has struck Grace Trevethan (Brenda Blethyn), and it's not the sudden death of her husband that has her in such a tizz. Unbeknownst to Grace, he was involved in all manner of failing businesses, and put up their 300-year-old manor home in a tiny, picturesque Cornish fishing village as collateral against a series of whopping great loans. Now the money's due, and she's dead broke and desperate: The only practical thing Grace has ever learned how to do — and we use the word "practical" advisedly — is grow exquisite orchids. Enter Matthew (Craig Ferguson), Grace's Scottish gardener, who asks for her help in reviving a sickly wee plant he's been growing in a hidden spot near the vicarage. Even the sheltered Grace knows a marijuana plant when she sees one, and soon the two of them have hatched a plan to evict the orchids and grow hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of weed in the greenhouse, much to the dismay of Matthew's down-to-earth girlfriend Nicky (Valerie Edmond). It probably goes without saying that in no time flat half the town knows about the secret marijuana project; but will Grace be able to harvest and unload the lot before outsiders catch on? This sort of thing may not be your cup of tea, but if it is, it's a lovely brew. Blethyn is utterly charming as the slightly twee Grace, and Ferguson's lunkheaded appeal provides a perfect foil; as the local doctor, who likes a hit as much as the next man (if not more), the rubber-faced Martine Clunes is used sparingly and to fine effect.