Despite Cast of Talented Actors, ‘Greenfingers’ Is All Thumbs

Heart-tuggers don’t come much more shameless than “Greenfingers,” a British comedy about a group of hardened criminals who are redeemed by becoming gardeners behind prison walls.

Inspired by Paula Deitz’s 1998 New York Times article “Free to Grow Bluebells in England,” writer-director Joel Hershman has concocted a tale of some endearing blokes--never mind that a couple are murderers--who plant a lot of posies and wind up competing in the Hampton Court Palace Flower Show, their lives transformed in the process.

“Greenfingers” plays like the latest attempt to repeat the success of “The Full Monty” with its ensemble of working-class males getting their lives together in an unexpected way, and Hershman is a skilled enough writer and director to put over his picture with punch. Yet even those willing to go along with his unblushing sentimentality might well find it difficult to swallow a climactic plot device that requires a very recent ex-con to break parole.

As a result, only the most unquestioning will probably be able to go the distance with their willing suspension of disbelief. There’s no denying the positive benefits of gardening, but “Greenfingers” is relentlessly smarmy and contrived, and its pitch for the cause of prisoner rehabilitation preachy and heavy-handed.

More than anything else, “Greenfingers” reminds us how invaluable is all that seasoning British actors get performing Shakespeare and other classics. Hershman has written a clutch of showy roles, and his cast has the talent and experience to bring to them dimension and humanity. Even at its most nakedly manipulative, “Greenfingers” offers the genuine pleasure of watching real pros doing their stuff.

“Croupier’s” steely Clive Owen stars as a hard-case long-term con, Colin, who is an unwilling transfer to Her Majesty’s Prison Edgefield, a minimum-security facility with a strong rehabilitation program whose governor (Warren Clarke) has a bulky bulldog look that disguises a heart of gold. Colin is a resolutely glum loner, but he’s placed in a room with Fergus (David Kelly), a colorful codger determined to thaw him out and share sage remarks like “Adversity is your ally.”

Fergus is on his last legs from myriad ailments, but Hershman shrewdly keeps him hanging around because Kelly skillfully makes any scene come alive. When Fergus gives Colin a packet of violet seeds for Christmas, not only do they blossom but along with them a new work program that will prove the spiritual salvation for Colin and other inmates.

Then along comes Helen Mirren as the Julia Child of gardening to lend her prestigious imprimatur to the prisoners’ project; with her as chauffeur and factotum is her pretty daughter (Natasha Little), who catches Colin’s eye.

Dressed like a cross between the late Barbara Cartland and the Queen Mother, Mirren is fun as this grande dame of horticulture, alternately generous and concerned and imperious and hypocritical; unfailingly, Mirren finds the inherent humor in the woman, even when she’s behaving badly.

That Mirren and others are amusing and even touching doesn’t change the fact that “Greenfingers” has been made with a black thumb.

*

MPAA rating: R, for language and some sexuality. Times guidelines: language, adult situations.

‘Greenfingers’

Clive Owen: Colin Briggs

Helen Mirren: Georgina Woodhouse

David Kelly: Fergus Wilks

Warren Clarke: Governor Hodge

A Fireworks Pictures-Samuel Goldwyn Entertainment film. Writer-director Joel Hershman. Producers Travis Swords, Daniel J. Victor, Trudie Styler. Executive producer Daniel J. Victor. Cinematographer John Daly. Editor Justin Krish. Music Guy Dagul. Costumes Frances Tempest. Production designer Tim Hutchinson. Art director Neesh Ruben. Running time: 1 hour, 30 minutes.

At selected theaters.