Martin Clunes and Valerie Edmond in "Saving Grace."

MOVIE INFORMATION

With 10 as a must-see, Jack gives this film a: Stars: Brenda Bleythen and Craig Ferguson Director: Nigel Cole Rated: R, with profanity and drug use Length: 98 minutes

ROCHESTERCRITIQUE

Having seen this film, how would you rate it? 10 5 9 4 8 3 7 2 6 1

By Jack Garner
Democrat and Chronicle

(August 18, 2000) -- Saving Grace is the latest British Isles comedy in the rustic, rural-village tradition of Waking Ned Devine, Local Hero and so many others. With their thatch-roofed homes, quaint streets and quirky residents, the films have become a virtual "cottage industry" for English and Irish filmmakers.

In this case, the quirky neighbors along the Cornish coast are among the last class of people on earth to discover the wonders of hemp. And despite its illegality and suspect benefits, it's all made palatable because growing marijuana is all part of a last-ditch effort to save Grace.

Grace Trevethen (Brenda Blethyn) is a comfortable middle-aged woman -- and notable horticulturalist -- whose life is turned upside-down when her husband dies. She's shocked to discover he's left her a huge pile of debts and has even re-mortgaged their lovely country home. Furniture and equipment are repossessed at an alarming rate, and the bank is threatening to take her home and throw her on the street.

But that's when Grace becomes curious about her handyman, Matthew (Craig Ferguson of The Drew Carey Show) and his raggedy little collection of marijuana plants. When he asks the noted gardener to help him bring a scraggly plant to life, she begins to consider branching out.

When he tells her the street value of the weed, Grace realizes her only salvation may lie in drug trafficking. Before you know it, she's applying high-tech gardening techniques -- and greenhouse lights that light up the Cornish sky like Las Vegas.

Before long the very proper English matron and other decidedly non-hippie villagers are becoming enthusiastic about Grace and Matthew's joint enterprise -- and the joints that result.

As directed by Nigel Cole, Saving Grace, is in the tried-and-true mold of fish-out-of-water comedies; an amusing cross-culture blending of the worlds of low drugs and high tea.

Once the set-up is established, the plot runs a bit thin. The ending also comes out of the blue, and too conveniently gets Grace and the villagers out of the moral dilemma of dealing drugs.

Yet, the film remains amusing and satisfying, primarily because we've been won over by the obvious appeal and talented of Brenda Blethyn (the Oscar-nominated star of Secrets and Lies and Little Voice), and her character's very real dilemma. Blethyn is a gifted purveyor of subtle, warm humor, a master of reactive acting who gets more mileage from a glance or a quick smile than most actors get from pages of dialogue. Note, for example, the way she quickly takes charge during Grace's encounter with a big-time London drug lord.

It'd be too much to say Blethyn saves Saving Grace, because the film has other distinctly appealing qualities. But she certainly helps win us over to this fable of a resourceful woman and her unlikely resource.