a fun gardening movie

Last July I did a post on the doc­u­men­tary A Man Named Pearl, and at point asked a ques­tion about what films there were about gar­den­ing. Leslie made the rec­om­men­da­tion of Green­fin­gers, a Y2K British pro­duc­tion star­ring Clive Owen and Helen Mir­rin. Based loosely on a true story, it told of incar­cer­ated gar­den­ers in Eng­land that had a reha­bil­i­ta­tion pro­gram involv­ing gar­den­ing. In real life the pris­on­ers even­tu­ally went on to design award win­ning gar­den exhibits at the Hamp­ton Court and Chelsea Flower Shows.

My Net­flix queue is pretty long, but by last week I’d worked through a few dozen films and the red enve­lope con­tain­ing Green­fin­gers arrived in the mail. I won’t give away the end any more than I have–It’s based only loosely on the facts I’ve men­tioned above. But if you haven’t seen it already it’s def­i­nitely a wor­thy movie rental–Warm, funny and roman­tic, it’s a great film for these long win­ter nights.

Now if only the film didn’t use so many plas­tic plants, includ­ing a red hibis­cus that fea­tures promi­nently in the plot. We’re gar­den­ers, peo­ple! We can tell!

January 12 2009 05:47 am | Categories: gardening | Tags: •

7 Responses to “a fun gardening movie”

  1. Philip on 12 Jan 2009 at 12:21 pm #

    Hi,
    I have seen this movie. One of my favorite scenes is at the begin­ning of the movie. Helen Mir­rin is a gar­den expert and she is at a forum. A woman asks her a ques­tion as she replies that she should just rip the plant out and throw it on the bon­fire( or some­thing like that) I had to laugh as many of the best gar­den­ers can be quite unsen­ti­men­tal, much to other peo­ples hor­ror.
    That is a good gar­den­ing movie. If I can think of one, I will let you know.
    Best,
    Philip

  2. philip on 12 Jan 2009 at 2:48 pm #

    James!
    Co-incidentally I went home for lunch, and this movie was on. I for­got how touch­ing it was.
    Best regards,
    Philip

  3. Philip on 12 Jan 2009 at 3:00 pm #

    My rec­om­men­da­tion is not a gar­den­ing movie, but it has a won­der­full set­ting.
    “My Father’s Glory” is one of my favorite films set in Provence in the turn of the cen­tury.
    Best,
    Philip

  4. Minxterbloom on 12 Jan 2009 at 4:55 pm #

    I men­tioned your post in my blog:
    http://minxterbloom.squarespace.com/journal/2009/1/13/gardening-video-pleasures.html

    Enjoy.

  5. tina on 12 Jan 2009 at 5:47 pm #

    Too cool! I have never heard of this movie but will be on the look out for it.

  6. lostlandscape on 12 Jan 2009 at 7:03 pm #

    Philip, Helen Mir­rin def­i­nitely gets the best lines and is the liveli­est char­ac­ter in the film–someone who doesn’t stand fools OR unruly plants! What a coin­ci­dence you found it for lunchtime view­ing. Small world sometimes.

    I looked up My Father’s Glory and it seems like some­thing I’d be inter­est­ing in see­ing. Onto the queue it goes!

    Minx, thanks for the link, and thanks for point­ing out Rose­mary & Thyme in your post. I noticed it’s avail­able on Net­flix as well, so it’s onto my queue as well!

    And Tina, I hope you like Green­fin­gers. The plot had a cou­ple of inter­est­ing twists that were a nice surprise.

  7. Karen - An Artists Garden on 14 Jan 2009 at 10:39 am #

    It was a feel good film wasn’t it — but you know, I am going to have to watch it again to look for the the red hibis­cus, some­how I missed that or maybe I just deleted it from my mind if it wasn’t real :)
    K

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