August 5, 2007
Grow Your Own is a social-realism sitcom – a sort of Mike Leigh film crossed with The Good Life. Set on an allotment, with an assortment of fruity characters, it tells the story of a Chinese immigrant shell-shocked by personal tragedy, trying to fit into English life. But immigrants being given garden plots is like weeds in a vegetable patch to some of the allotment’s regulars.
Richard Laxton’s gentle comedy is upfront about its symbolism. Yes, the allotment is little Britain and the influx of refugees, and the residents’ reactions to multi-cultural ways, are writ large. But rather than whacking you with a marrow, Laxton plants some sensitive and amusing seeds that slowly bloom into an enjoyable little film.
Benedict Wong (Sunshine) plays Kung Sang, a refugee whose flight from the Chinese authorities with his wife and children ended in tragedy. Silent and emotionally disorientated, Kung Sang can’t look after his own kids – leaving feisty daughter Phoenix (a luminous Sophie Lee) to cope with their home and their new allotment.
Big John (Philip Jackson) is the allotment’s head honcho, in love with arcane bureaucracy and not averse to a few shenanigans to protect his interests. So when a mobile phone company offers ‘cash for plots’ to put up a mast, Big John’s insistent it’s the immigrants who’ll go first. But under-the-thumb son Little John (Eddie Marsan, Sixty Six) is in love with an African widow, and other plotholders are soon warming to the foreigners’ways.
Grow Your Own, from the lettering of its opening credits to the ruggedly loveable characters, harks back to 70s-style sitcom. Inoffensive and subtly amusing, it ploughs its own furrow, letting the performances and witty asides speak for themselves. Benedict Wong conveys much in a largely wordless role making the eventual confession of his trauma all the more affecting.
Eddie Marsan rightly gets second-billing in a performance of typically understated brilliance. Wooing his amour with awful Hawaiian shirts, missing completely the affections of another (winsome Olivia Colman), and quietly simmering against the put-downs of his Dad, Marsan’s face is a wonderfully expressive mix of humour, pathos and grit.
You can watch Grow Your Own as a time-passing diversion – a welcome return to characterful, easy-to-like humour. Or you can open yourself to the colour-coded symbolism and go with the flow.
The film’s original title was The Allotment and began life as a would-be documentary – but Grow Your Own is truer to the mark and speaks volumes: for this is really a comedy about putting down roots and respecting variety. Well-tended and lovingly made, most things in this Allotment’s garden are rosy.
Richard Laxton’s gentle comedy is upfront about its symbolism. Yes, the allotment is little Britain and the influx of refugees, and the residents’ reactions to multi-cultural ways, are writ large. But rather than whacking you with a marrow, Laxton plants some sensitive and amusing seeds that slowly bloom into an enjoyable little film.
Benedict Wong (Sunshine) plays Kung Sang, a refugee whose flight from the Chinese authorities with his wife and children ended in tragedy. Silent and emotionally disorientated, Kung Sang can’t look after his own kids – leaving feisty daughter Phoenix (a luminous Sophie Lee) to cope with their home and their new allotment.
Big John (Philip Jackson) is the allotment’s head honcho, in love with arcane bureaucracy and not averse to a few shenanigans to protect his interests. So when a mobile phone company offers ‘cash for plots’ to put up a mast, Big John’s insistent it’s the immigrants who’ll go first. But under-the-thumb son Little John (Eddie Marsan, Sixty Six) is in love with an African widow, and other plotholders are soon warming to the foreigners’ways.
Grow Your Own, from the lettering of its opening credits to the ruggedly loveable characters, harks back to 70s-style sitcom. Inoffensive and subtly amusing, it ploughs its own furrow, letting the performances and witty asides speak for themselves. Benedict Wong conveys much in a largely wordless role making the eventual confession of his trauma all the more affecting.
Eddie Marsan rightly gets second-billing in a performance of typically understated brilliance. Wooing his amour with awful Hawaiian shirts, missing completely the affections of another (winsome Olivia Colman), and quietly simmering against the put-downs of his Dad, Marsan’s face is a wonderfully expressive mix of humour, pathos and grit.
You can watch Grow Your Own as a time-passing diversion – a welcome return to characterful, easy-to-like humour. Or you can open yourself to the colour-coded symbolism and go with the flow.
The film’s original title was The Allotment and began life as a would-be documentary – but Grow Your Own is truer to the mark and speaks volumes: for this is really a comedy about putting down roots and respecting variety. Well-tended and lovingly made, most things in this Allotment’s garden are rosy.