Grow Your Own

While it's not exactly a film that is going to set the world on fire with it's originality, "Grow Your Own" is a perfectly OK drama/comedy. (Note, it is a drama/comedy rather than a comedy/drama. There is a difference.)

The trailer would have you believe that "Grow Your Own" is a film concerned with British eccentrics, stuck in their ways, perturbed by the influence of foreigners on the little piece of England they call the Allotment. Er... Actually that is exactly what it is about (clichés ahoy!), but it is the sometimes very tragic human stories behind the clichés that make "Grow Your Own" interesting enough.

The cast is made up of the same faces that are always turning up in British films. (Philip Jackson, Eddie Marsan, John Henshaw, Olivia Colman, Omid Djalili, et al.) All of them perfectly, and probably obviously, cast.

Not world breaking, but a perfectly amiable film for a quiet afternoon at the cinema. Yes, it is another, I'm assuming, lottery funded British movie of no interest to anybody outside of the British Isles, but give it a go. You might like it.

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

I had never heard of this film and so didn't know what to expect. I was very pleasantly surprised. Well written, well filmed and with some great performances. Amusing, idiosyncratic with typical Allotment politics throughout. Hardly a Citizen Kane or a Casablanca, but there are worse ways to spend an hour and a half. You feel pleasantly refreshed after watching it.

I didn't expect a movie about asylum seekers and allotments to be one of my favourite movies. But it's British quirkyness is absolutely charming. Where else in the world do they have allotments? but more importantly, I think it perfectly captures the great British love-hate of foreigners. We like them but hate them at the same time. In this movie we have the typical mistrust yet somehow that's broken down. Partly it's through food - yes we do love our takeaways here in the UK don't we? and partly through skills (yes we are short of a few) and partly through romance.

It's a movie that I think is really topical and all UKIP supporters should see!

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!