Saving Grace

An updated, Ealing-style comedy, with marijuana instead of whisky galore and Brenda Blethyn in the role that, 50 years ago, would have gone to Margaret Rutherford. The star of Secrets and Lies and Little Voice is the eponymous Grace, a recently widowed housewife whose late husband has left her with a mountain of debts to pay. The only way to keep her beautiful Cornish mansion is to grow ganja with the aid of her Scottish handyman, Craig Ferguson (The Big Tease). A host of familiar TV faces (Martin Clunes, Leslie Phillips, Diana Quick) jockey for position, but the screenplay (a joint effort by Ferguson and Mark Crowdy) is more juvenile than risqué and makes tittering pot-shots at the expense of credible characterisation and plot development.

"...With its lush photography and pleasing romantic angle, this old-fashioned comedy is funny enough to generate a buzz..." -- 3 out of 4 stars