Hesbolla
Excellent Movie, a quiet cinematic piece where the right balance between the loveliness and the horrors of human life is found. Great Job! All actors did a good job in keeping their characters ell grounded. Not being English myself but European and more of a world citizen I can really appreciate the picture portrait by each and every actor and how wonderful the story is without beginning or end. In the end everything is as it was: a growing community. No judgement given. I really enjoyed that there was no violence or vile words. And this is the England and people we have found here and in other European countries. The emotions of being refugees or immigrant or different is just like it has been portrait here. Not important enough to make it into a political debate. Let just stay human and go on and grow together!
the_cult_of_clough
This was a nice Little film, Nice is probably the crucial word because it did suffer from the British film comedy pitfall of using stock characters while tying everything up too "nicely" at the end. The Eddie Marsan / Olivia Coleman romance storyline must have seemed like well trodden paths through their allotted stories and they pulled off trademark, lovable loser, performances that I am sure would come across as heart-warming if we hadn't seen them many times before. And there were a few other comedy stalwarts playing within similar well ploughed furrows.That said, there was much to commend the film - the characters were familiar but you felt a warmth for all (of whom you were intended to) and the script although a little threadbare in places had some great moments too; the Grumpy old Rebel and the Chinese family were extremely well written and played. The cinematography was much better than some comments have implied too - there is one shot of darkened clouds over the allotments and a couple of other night-time views that were pretty impressive.Its a story about a set of allotments and the changing ethnic shape of working class society and as such it is well meaning and entertaining .. yes we have seen much of it before .. yes there have been better Brit films and if you want a hard-biting film about the state of British society or the evils of racism in Britain today, there is a lot better out there but....I sat in a showing (late admittedly) in a major British City, in that Cities main Cinema, on a Saturday night, on only the second night after the films release, i was the ONLY viewer!! I hope that is not an indication of the films fate because it deserves better than that
Hen Detective
I saw a preview of this and absolutely loved it. It was very funny (the scene where the cranky old men test out the ring tones for instance is a classic) and touching. I loved the fact that it had none of the usual faces that you see in Britcoms. I didn't recognise anyone in it apart from Benny Wong - who was amazing in this - and the very funny girl from Hot Fuzz, who was just as funny in this. I love the fact that it keeps about ten different stories rolling along. I also loved all the gardening stuff. It reminded me of The Secret Garden and it gave the whole thing a bit of poetry and beauty that you just don't see in films about working class people normally.
nevadascout
I recently saw this movie and thought it was charming and funny. The comedy was subtle in places, laugh-out-loud in others, but always well-placed. I would disagree with the notion that some of the characters are superfluous or under- developed... I thought they were subtle, well-played and a great collection of people. I didn't find it hard to imagine them digging away somewhere on an allotment!I do agree with the comment about Benedict Wong, this was a great performance, I also really liked Eddie Marsan and Philip Jackson's characters. As for the name, I rather like "Grow Your Own" as a title!