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[Short Reviews]

GREENFINGERS

Take The Birdman of Alcatraz, remove the edge, relocate from the infamous federal penitentiary to a country-club-like model prison, exchange ornithology for horticulture, and you’ve got Joel Hershman’s Greenfingers, the latest British crowd pleaser along the lines of The Full Monty and Waking Ned Devine. Clive Owen, who knows his way around a steely glare and a pregnant silence, as seen in Croupier, brings a simmer to Colin Briggs, who’s doing time for an unnamed crime. Colin hardly softens when wizened cellmate Fergus (David Kelly from Ned Devine) coaxes him into planting his first seeds. But even if you didn’t know he’s going to blossom when his eyes spot his first bloom, you would when they cross the gaze of Primrose (Natasha Little), the shrinking-violet daughter of Georgina Woodhouse (Helen Mirren), a bestselling gardening writer who’s taken an interest in Colin’s " greenfingers. "

A gardening competition is about as dicy as this film gets, and Colin’s cutthroat colleagues are less daunting than snippy Georgina. Like the best English gardens, Greenfingers retains a few weeds to preserve the illusion of nature; otherwise it’s thoroughly cultivated and under control.

By Peter Keough

Issue Date: August 9 - 16, 2001