Film Reviews

Grow Your Own

• Rating:
• Director: Richard Laxton
• Starring: Eddie Marsan
• Details: UK / 97mins (PG).

Imagine for a moment Britain's 1970s sitcom The Good Life, and cross that with Robert Redford's The Milagro Beanfield War and you've got Grow Your Own. Set in allotments of an unnamed English city, Grow Your Own follows a number of characters as they try to find some peace of mind growing ... that's right - vegetables. But director Richard Laxton (Music And Lyrics) and his writers (Frank Cottrell Boyce and Carl Hunter) use this setting to comment on the influx of asylum seekers in the UK and Britain's attitude towards them. Headed up by ex-cop Big John (Jackson), the small, green-fingered group are dead against these 'gypos' - Benedict Wong's Chinese family, Nathalie Armin's African widow and Omid Djalili's doctor - invading their allotment, and want them out. All but sweet Eddie Marsan, that is, who has a thing for Armin. Throw in a mobile phone company who need a plot to set down a mast, and their quaint little corner of the world becomes the centre of a maelstrom. It's an obvious and corny story but as it moves on, it has the power to draw you in, and soon the corniness become one of the movie's saving graces. Even though it would work better as a series, Grow Your Own is likeable fare, with some of the best of British character actors delivering very restrained performances.

Review by Gavin Burke