Overdose of pot jokes kills `Grace's' momentum
By JUDE SEYMOUR
Scene Movie Critic
In his directorial debut, Nigel Cole presents a British comedy about a housewife named Grace Trevethyn and her very big problem.
Grace (played by Brenda Blethyn) has been left with a mountainous load of debt thanks in full to her recently deceased husband. It seems Grace's husband has mysteriously died at the perfect time: the moment the creditors and repo-men are coming to disseminate the Trevethyn estate. Without a job and facing a 300 thousand-pound debt, Grace's innocent conversation with her gardener leads to a gold mine idea: growing marijuana in twenty kilo chunks to subsidize her rather quaint life.
"Saving Grace" has immediately presented us with its main source of fodder for the remaining 60 minutes. Each joke is now hit or miss depending on whether the audience will find funny a housewife growing hemp plants in the greenhouse behind her estate and trying to avoid going to jail.
A couple of striking visuals (smoking pot over a cliff) and a pop soundtrack (with a very English flavor) are not enough to supply any additional depth. The movie will be a hit or miss with the audience based on the presentation of each successive pot joke and also if those jokes can be woven together to make a satisfying plot.
As with all successful British comedies, the movie explores minor characters that provide jokes for certain scenes. For example, Grace's elderly lady friends stumble upon her greenhouse and use a plant leaf for their tea. In minutes, we see the two ladies giggling and munching obnoxiously on corn flakes.
The movie is in trouble: the jokes are laughable, but do nothing to advance the plot.
In addition, a romantic element is rather hastily outlined for us. Grace's gardener, Matthew, is struggling to make his relationship work with his long time girlfriend, Nicky. While the director provides a clever parallel in two scenes (scenes of Nicky at church interspersed with a scene of Matthew helping grow the marijuana bud), the viewer knows from the introduction of the characters that the relationship will work out.
When Matthew and Nicky embrace in the water near the completion of the film, solidifying their love, the romantic element has done nothing but slow the laughter in the film. When the audience is not laughing, it is a hazard for this movie: it cannot stand alone with its dramatic elements.
Moreover, the character development of Grace is rather standard. The movie provokes the audience to feel sympathy for her situation early so it can justify her illegal activity later. When the creditors and the police start getting close, the story was designed so the audience would root for Grace to somehow avoid jail and earn enough money to keep her house.
Naturally, a movie that promotes bulk marijuana distribution to solve life's problems would receive criticism from someone, so the plot turns to a contemporary version of "straddling the fence." It is not marijuana that saves Grace from money troubles. It is unfortunately something a lot less believable, but very legal.
Here is where the main fault of the movie lies: it was conceived with an ending that invalidates the movie's sole source of humor. In this case, maybe it is not a movie whose discussion afterwards should be based on the weakness of the ending (or so says a fellow moviegoer). This reviewer comes from a different school of thought, however, which stipulates that a movie should attempt to achieve greatness from beginning to end.
In this case, if you are looking for a smart British comedy in the same vein as "Saving Grace," rent 1998's "Waking Ned Devine" for a decidedly more satisfying payoff.
--2 shamrocks (out of 5)
All Scene Stories for Thursday, September 7, 2000
