Very best movie i ever watch

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties. It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

Colin Briggs (Clive Owen) steals flowers to give to Primrose deliberately breaking his parole. The movie flashes back. He reluctantly goes to the new open progressive Edgefield prison where inmates learn usable skills and live in a less restricted environment. He had gotten used to the hard prison life for 15 years. He had killed his younger brother at 18 in a rage when he found his brother with his girlfriend. He befriends elderly prisoner Fergus Wilks but doesn't take any interest. He gets into a fight with the guys playing football when their ball rolls over Fergus' beloved wild flowers. Governor Hodge comes up with a new skill to teach. Colin, Fergus and the three footballers become gardeners. They are given Georgina Woodhouse (Helen Mirren) gardening books who later is taken by their garden. Colin falls for Georgina's daughter Primrose but Georgina doesn't approved.It's a nice, easy, simplistic movie. I can't really classify it as a prison movie. It's loosely based on a true story. It's really way too easy and simplistic. It lacks any real style. Clive Owen is nice and it has the great Helen Mirren. It doesn't have the greatest of writing. The romantic chemistry is also rather lacking. Colin and the old man have better chemistry. The movie has a nice setup but fades a little towards the end. It could also probably use a few jokes to soften up the audience. The movie is just kind of flat.

Clive Owen is one of my favourite British actors. He first caught my attention in the early 90s with the British TV series Chancer. Even at the tender age of 25, he was quite excellent in the role of a roguishly likable financial analyst who could turn ruthless at the drop of a hat.Although the series only lasted 20 episodes, Owen remained uniformly excellent, and quite effortless in his ability to appear charming or devious whenever it was required of him. Unfortunately, after the series wrapped (ahead of its time), the film roles Owen so richly deserved just weren't rolling in. He was forced to potter about in TV movie territory for much of the following 90s, a medium where Owen's talents were completely wasted.But then in 1998, his role in the noirish gambling thriller Croupier was the part that finally made Hollywood sit up and take notice of Clive Owen. It was his strongest role in years. The first one he'd been given since Chancer that reminded audiences what a charismatic and magnetic performer Clive can be.Its taken a further six years, but its only now really that Clive Owen is getting the attention (and respect) that he deserves. Something long overdue. He's established himself as a perfect leading man in some of the best films of the past few years, including Sin City, Inside Man and especially Children of Men. Quite a hat trick!Greenfingers was made at a time when Clive Owen still hadn't quite ascended to the A-list. And while Greenfingers didn't exactly raise his profile the way Croupier did, its still another of his good ones. The plot is something that shouldn't even begin to work. A group of prisoners placed in a gardening program, and it turns out to be their true vocation. Its something that leaves itself open to any number of criticisms. That it's too sugary for its own good. It paints an inaccurate portrait of life in prison. And that such progressive prison systems only exist in fiction.Personally I myself prefer prison dramas that are grittier. The Shawshank Redemption still holds the crown there, but with Clive Owen in the lead, and the superb Helen Mirren on the sidelines, Greenfingers is a winner all the way.Greenfingers is quite easy to get into. Joel Hershman, directing and writing sets up scenes well. It clocks in at a fine 90 minutes, so it never outstays its welcome. And the acting from all involved makes the film never less than pleasant to watch.Clive Owen plays Colin Briggs, a man who's been in prison ever since he killed his brother at the age of 18. He gets transferred to Edgefield, a more progressive prison system that favours rehabilitation over incarceration.For the first month, Colin keeps his head down. Left to his own devices. And forced to live with the guilt he secretly feels over the death of his brother. But one of the inmates and Colin's roommate Fergus Wilks (a very impressive David Kelly) takes an instant liking to Colin. Its Fergus who introduces Colin to the world of gardening when he gives him a packet of flower seeds for Christmas.By pure chance, when he buries them in the yard, Colin produces double-violets, all the more remarkable considering the awful soil he has to work with. The prison warden, Governor Hodge (Warren Clarke) senses that within Colin beats the heart of a true gardener. And starts up a gardening program.Along with Fergus and a group of selected inmates, they turn the barren wasteland of Edgefield into a lush garden. And when Georgina Woodhouse, (Helen Mirren), a respected horticulturist pays a visit, she sponsors Edgefield at the Hampton Court Flower Show. Accusations, parole hearings and even mice conspire against them, but can you win if you're a jailbird?Greenfingers is a film that reminds a lot of Sister Act. That of a really quite predictable film with lots of easily guessable character arcs and scenarios, but thanks to the finely shaded performances by the cast, it goes some way towards making up for all that, and makes the film more entertaining than it might have been in the hands of a less able cast.Clive Owen is expectedly excellent. He has a way of downplaying emotion without coming off as bland. And he utilises it to great effect. He's had a hard life and nothing to live for when he gets out of prison, but when he discovers his talent for gardening, it ignites a passion in him he never knew existed. Something that he will fight to protect. His speech at his parole hearing concerning how gardening has turned his life around is actually quite moving. What could have been trite and mawkish in another actor's hands becomes inspiring in Owen's.I would have liked to have seen a bit more of Helen Mirren, but she holds the screen effortlessly whenever she is around as Georgina Woodhouse (should have been Wodehouse, don't you think!?). Its an eccentric part, but Helen Mirren's fine line in arch delivery ensures you'll love her. Despite the god-awful hats she has to wear throughout!Also impressive is David Kelly as Fergus. A man who (like Colin) has spent much of his life in prison, he's become resigned to the fact he will die within the walls of Edgefield. His father/son relationship with Colin is nicely handled too, and when he does die, I like the monument they erect in his honour. Placed fittingly in the garden.Some plot strands are left dangling, like a prisoner who escapes and then gets forgotten about by the film, but I enjoyed Greenfingers for its lack of pretension. A very gracious film you don't see enough of on television nowadays. It has a nice moral too. How watching your garden grow can also do the same for your self-esteem.

Another gem of a movie in the same mould as Calendar Girls and Ladies in Lavender. The Brits have the total knack of turning nothing stories into films that simply make you feel good. A simple plot. A group of prisoners at an open prison are encouraged to take up gardening as a way to prepare themselves for the outside world, bearing in mind that many of them were murderers. That they succeed and go on to win prizes at prestigious flower shows in England makes for a pleasant hour and a half, or so. The acting is great especially from Clive Owen, Helen Mirren and David Kelly. It was a little disconcerting to listen to Warren Ckarke with a "posh" voice though. The film is base on a true story and is beautifully photographed. Its also great fun to watch. Go rent or, better, go buy it and enjoy it over and over again.

I would probably go to see Clive Owens and Helen Mirren read the phone book, and I practically did in "Greenfingers," but it's still fun for fans of Brit coms and such. While Clive's "Colin" isn't one of the hardened convicts of HBO's "Oz," he is emotionally cut-off and his blooming with his flowers is sweet, facilitated by mentor David Kelley (from "Waking Ned Devine"). The love story doesn't quite ignite.The other reformed-through-horticulture prison-mates are the usual Brit class and race rainbow, so are hard to understand sometimes.It will make a nice episode of PBS's "Masterpiece Theatre." (originally written 8/4/2001)