Rating: 
Summary: Charming and Quirky
Review: I first saw Saving Grace on a Virgin Atlantic flight in July, coming home from Scotland. I never heard of the movie, but was quickly drawn in by the characters setting and plot. When it finally opened in the U.S., I became a one-man PR firm, talking the film up and getting people to go see it. Brenda Blethyn is one of my favorite actresses, back from when she played the mother in "A River Runs Through It." She plays Grace with dignity, warmth, and just a touch of desperation. Craig Ferguson is nothing like the character he plays on Drew Carey. His Matthew is sweet, concerned, and a little irresponsible, but trying hard to do the best he can. The supporting cast is wonderful too, adding a richness to the village in Cornwall that makes you care about what is happening, and believe it to be possible. Martin Clunes as Dr. Bamford, and Valerie Edmond as Matthew's girlfriend, Nicky, provide a sense of whimsy and groundedness to the events that unfold. Combine the performances with a good soundtrack and the beautiful setting on the Cornish coast and you have a great "little" film in which you will discover new things with each viewing.
Rating: 
Summary: "WEED"ING OUT MONEY TROUBLES IN A CORNWALL SETTING
Review: The Grace in "Saving Grace" is a penniless widow as her scumbag husband commits suicide (bad debts, it is suggested.) She is at her wit's end trying to pony up all the dough needed to settle the string of debts that he has left her with. Middle aged, and her only possible ticket to self-independence her gardening skills, she turns to growing weed to pay the bills. The theme is promising, the screenplay is gorgeous (although a bit too tinted film in nature scenes, Scotland would've been breathtaking as it is!), the background score is pretty crisp, and the ever-reliable Brenda Blethyn doesn't disappoint. The movie also has a good deal of light-hearted moments, and you can imagine people in a theatre bursting into guffaws quite frequently. Problem is that the material is sitcom-thin. There's even a doozy scene where Grace asks her young gardener to 'give her one' (.........) which he mistakes as a request for ...... Halfway through the movie you lose a sense of what the movie intended to be -- the stunning cinematography and stately pace evoke images of classy noir, and then that whole aura is dropped with a thud amidst the light-hearted whimsy of the country townsfolk. But my biggest gripe with the movie is the absolutely lacklustre denouement, quite clearly a desparate attempt to tug at your heart-strings. Looks like there simply was no way to end the whole charade of ......., so the "good guys" moral twist goes up in flames, quite literally. Definitley worth a watch, heck I even strongly recommend it for the character development and the typical cornwall humor throughout the entire movie, as long as you don't let the last 10 minutes spoil your taste. 3/5
Rating:
Summary: Cornwall is not in Scotland or Northern England..?
Review: Contrary to some really bad reviewers on this site [Shashank Tripathi on "'WEED"ING OUT MONEY TROUBLES IN A CORNWALL SETTING" and Ante Soda on "Grace saved herself"] Cornwall is not in Scotland or Northern England..? Some of this film's harshest reviewers have no idea about the setting of this work. Were they stoned when they watched the show, or wrote their reviews? Either way, don't take their word for it because they are obviously clueless about this motion picture which is outstandingly charming. British comedy fans won't be disappointed with "Saving Grace" either...
Rating:
Summary: If you don¿t laugh at this movie, you best check your pulse
Review: Saving Grace is an old fashioned British romp in the tradition of Faulty Towers or some of the other great British TV imported over the years by PBS. Grace's (Brenda Blethyn) husband has just died in an improbable manner and left her with some improbable problems, viz. a very large house with a very large mortgage and a very beautiful mistress. The very proper Grace has always tended to the house and in particular is known as a champion gardener. She has no idea what to do as she is slowly advised of the depth of her financial problems. But like a proper Brit she doesn't despair and before long her Scottish handyman turns to her for help in improving his meager home-use marijuana crop, and the plot is set. Grace takes a plant cutting home and soon has it looking green and bountifully budful. She inquires about the price one could get for such a plant and when she hears the answer it seems like gardening could, indeed, be her salvation. You can almost see the gears working in this wonderful actress' head! From initial dawning we go to full scale production while dodging the local constable, the bank owner, the vicar and yet the whole town knows what's going on. Then we move into the distribution phase complete with drug dealers in London, chase scenes and farce. And, should I say, amid much laughter. If you don't laugh at this movie, you best check your pulse. There is a romantic side plot having to do with the handyman's fisherman girlfriend who is pregnant as well as the mystery of the hidden life of the dead husband. The movie was filmed in the Cornwall area and has some beautiful shots of that part of the world as the land cavorts with the sea. The acting is flawless and rendered with both restraint and energy at the appropriate time. You probably wouldn't need language to "get" this movie as much of the humor is physical. However, the actors do all speak English, that language that keeps us separated, and after you get your American ear tuned in you can understand the dialogue without difficulty. There is, of course, a bit of a moral dilemma here, what they are doing is after-all against the law, but that tension is settled in a satisfactory manner leading to an acceptable end just when you though movies could no longer end acceptably.
Rating: 
Summary: Britwit.....
Review: If you enjoy the British sense of humor and films with a little slapstick comedy, then you will probably like this film. However, if you're opposed to the buying, selling, and use of Marijuana, then the film may bother you a bit. If you don't want your kid to figure out how to grow MaryJane then you better not buy the DVD. I am a gardener, and believe me I learned a lot!! Brenda Blythen of SECRETS AND LIES fame and the hapless mother in LITTLE VOICE plays Grace Trevthyn of the film's title role. In this film, Ms. Blethyn isn't slutty or impoverished--well okay, she is impoverished. Her recently deceased spouse has left her in a bit of a pickle. Seems he blew the family fortune and hocked the ancestral dwelling before he died. Oh what's a poor widow with a greenhouse and passion for gardening to do?? Grow a cash crop of course. Things come out right in the end, but there's a lot of hanky panky (Grace has a heck of a love affair with a Frenchman--you'll recognize him) before all is said and done.
Rating:
Summary: Brenda Blethyn and Cornish Village Characters Can't Be Beat
Review: My friend Aleta and I saw this movie together too in the theater and it played to a packed house. We are both middle-aged women so we have become over time big Brenda Blethyn fans. We doubted that any American movie maker would have made this film with a middle-aged woman, Blethyn, as not only the leading character but also the lead ROMANTIC character. This film contains the ultimate dose of charm, humor and whimsy as only the British can show in their own unique fashion. Admittedly, sometimes I "get" their funny movies and sometimes I don't. This one we both "got" and were laughing uproariously throughout it as was our audience. Yes, it goes a bit over the top at the end but it's a very "feel good" ending and this movie was a bit of a fairy tale anyway so it didn't bother us. The plot involves a newly widowed and thus impoverished Blethyn who is a top gardener in her village. When her gardener brings her his marijuana stash for rejuvenation, they decide to grow more and sell a big crop of it to a drug dealer so as to solve her money problems. Seeing Blethyn trying to find a drug dealer in London on her own is worth the price of admission alone for outright hilarity. If the film maker had chosen heroin as the drug the movie obviously would not have worked. However, the use of marijuana in this movie is about as "serious" as its use in the old Cheech and Chong movies. I also doubt that English Cornish villages, as shown here, could in real life be this utterly charming and perfect but I sure loved the fantasy of it in the movie.
Rating:
Summary: It'll sneak up on you
Review: This charming, amusing film starts out fairly quiet and unassuming. When the recently widowed Grace Trevethyn (Brenda Blethyn) finds that her husband left her with a pile of debt, she slowly realizes that if she doesn't find a way to increase her income dramatically, she would lose her house. Her gardener Matthew Stewart (Craig Ferguson) encourages her to help him with his struggling pot plants. She takes this to her greenhouse and is hit by an idea on how to make money. All this is encouraged by her doctor Martin Bamford (Martin Clunes). Watching the remaining sequence of events unfold will leave you laughing.
Rating:
Summary: Cornwall is not in Scotland or Northern England..?
Review: Contrary to some really bad reviewers on this site [Shashank Tripathi on "'WEED"ING OUT MONEY TROUBLES IN A CORNWALL SETTING" and Ante Soda on "Grace saved herself"] Cornwall is not in Scotland or Northern England..? Some of this film's harshest reviewers have no idea about the setting of this work. Were they stoned when they watched the show, or wrote their reviews? Either way, don't take their word for it because they are obviously clueless about this motion picture which is outstandingly charming. British comedy fans won't be disappointed with "Saving Grace" either...
Rating: 
Summary: "Have you tried plant food?"
Review: Saving Grace is surely one of the leading contenders for the 'How to Ruin an Adequate Film in the Final Few Minutes' award. Naturally if you mix a quaint Cornish village - largely populated by retired genteel ladies - with a liberal dose of marijuana, a certain amount of silliness will ensue. However, the last seven minutes of the film descend into the totally ludicrous and is not even redeemed by being particularly funny. It is a real shame, because this comedy has the potential to be every bit as good as 1998's Waking Ned Devine, which also portrayed a picturesque small village and its oddball inhabitants trying to extract themselves from a tricky situation. The protagonist of Saving Grace is middle-aged, recently widowed Grace Trevethyn, whose husband's legacy of bad debts has forced her into an unconventional way of earning money. Helped by her gardener, Matthew, she turns her horticultural expertise to the lucrative cultivation of marijuana. Unfortunately, this leads her into confrontation with the local police, her husband's creditors and a French drug baron. . . . . . . . . . whom all turn up at her greenhouse simultaneously. The relationship and rapport between Grace and Matthew is well-portrayed, and Brenda Blethyn gets the viewer emotionally involved with her likeable character - you can really feel what she is going through. The casting of the minor roles is excellent, even if some of them are rather outlandishly eccentric. However, the transformation of Jacques the drug lord into Grace's romantic interest is highly implausible and does not fit the tone of the movie at all. And surely hydroponics is not such a revolution in the world of cannabis growing? Sadly the film swaps gentle humour for slapstick and ends up being as fake as the marijuana plants.
Rating:
Summary: great movie
Review: Everyone has given great reviews, but they all seem to be missing one key point. Craig Ferguson's character is a handyman, not a gardner. If he was a gardener that he wouldn't need Grace's help. Just a small point, but a key one. Cheers
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