Recently I watched the wonderful “Children of Men” starring Clive Owen. When I sent the film back to Netflix there were suggestions for other Clive Owen films, one being “Greenfingers,” a film I’d never seen or heard of. I figured “what the hell” and put it in my queue. It arrived in my mail slot the other day.
Inspired by actual events “Greenfingers” is the story of Colin Briggs (Clive Owen) a British convict who gets transferred from a high security prison to an experimental open prison where’s he’s instructed to learn a trade. Through a series of events he and four other prisoners are put together to create a garden on the premises and lo and behold they become gardeners extraordinaire.
The queen of British gardening, Georgina Woodhouse (Helen Mirren), takes notice of their accomplishment and arranges for them to participate is the highly prestigious gardening competition, The Hampton Court Palace Flower Show.
“Greenfingers” is about growth, transformation, and the joys of gardening.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know what you must be thinking... and I will agree that this is certainly a whitewashed retelling of what probably really happened and it’s sometimes too sweet and sentimental for its own good, but it also has a tremendous heart, a well-written script, and all around strong performances especially from Owen and David Kelly (from “Waking Ned Devine”).
Everyone needs a movie like “Greenfingers” every once in a while. It’s 91 minutes of green, and that’s a good thing.
Inspired by actual events “Greenfingers” is the story of Colin Briggs (Clive Owen) a British convict who gets transferred from a high security prison to an experimental open prison where’s he’s instructed to learn a trade. Through a series of events he and four other prisoners are put together to create a garden on the premises and lo and behold they become gardeners extraordinaire. The queen of British gardening, Georgina Woodhouse (Helen Mirren), takes notice of their accomplishment and arranges for them to participate is the highly prestigious gardening competition, The Hampton Court Palace Flower Show.
“Greenfingers” is about growth, transformation, and the joys of gardening.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know what you must be thinking... and I will agree that this is certainly a whitewashed retelling of what probably really happened and it’s sometimes too sweet and sentimental for its own good, but it also has a tremendous heart, a well-written script, and all around strong performances especially from Owen and David Kelly (from “Waking Ned Devine”).
Everyone needs a movie like “Greenfingers” every once in a while. It’s 91 minutes of green, and that’s a good thing.
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