The Jam!

At the moment, Greenfingers represents a good choice for anyone longing to see a movie that does not involve the future, outer space, monsters or monkeys

Mother Earth News

The film is a heart-warming, feel-good antidote to the mayhem often splattered across the summer screen, and is certain to strike a chord with viewers who have also experienced gardening's restorative qualities. So if you need to get away from those weeds for a while, you might take refuge in a movie theater and be assured that Greenfingers will suit your sensibilities.

People

August 6, 2001

The symbolism is laid on in spades as well. Greenfingers' hero Colin Briggs (Owen, as sexy here as he was in Croupier) is a murderer who finds personal growth, and redemption, in nurturing plants. Soon he is competing in England's snootiest flower show, as well as for the hand of the wallflower daughter (Little) of Georgina Woodhouse (Mirren), an amusingly flamboyant gardening guru who wears big hats and carries sharp shears

Daily News (New York)

July 27, 2001, Friday SPORTS FINAL EDITION SECTION: NOW; Pg. 44 HEADLINE: TENDRIL-LOVING 'GREENFINGERS' BYLINE: BY JAMI BERNARD

Another plus for "Greenfingers" is the handsome, brooding Clive Owen ("Croupier") as Colin, an inmate who doesn't seem to have a tender bone in his body until the first tendrils of spring unnerve him.

The Daily News of Los Angeles

July 27, 2001 Friday, Valley Edition SECTION: L.A. LIFE; Pg. L11 HEADLINE: CALL HIM A VIOLET OFFENDER BYLINE: Glenn Whipp, Film Critic

The movie trades heavily on the appeal of its cast, primarily the magnetic Clive Owen, who was so good in last year's art house sensation "Croupier." Owen again plays a troubled soul, a convicted murderer who has no desire to reform until he sees the violets bloom. Yup, it's corny. But under director Joel Hershman's ("Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me") light touch, "Greenfingers" never pretends to be anything more than crowd-pleasing entertainment, content for its audience to leave with a smile on its face.

Newsday (New York, NY)

Guns and Roses; Jailhouse gardeners cultivate personal growth

BYLINE: By John Anderson; STAFF WRITER

Owen and Mirren could, in fact, read a Burpee catalog and make the day seem a little brighter.

Salon.com

July 27, 2001 Friday - A tradition of British cinematic whimsy meets a garden of good and evil.

That the movie works at all is entirely due to Clive Owen. In last year's surprise art-house hit "Croupier," he didn't project much beyond bored self-absorption. Here he underplays with the confidence of a born leading man. Owen knows how to use his tall body and good looks (he's like a slightly younger, more open Dylan McDermott) expressively. His light glancing touch is a blessing in the scenes where he has to reveal his crime to Fergus, and when he has to inform a parole board what gardening has meant to him. He dries the scenes out, doesn't beg our sympathy. His best moment comes with Natasha Little as Georgina's daughter Primrose, whom he falls for, in the moments before they first go to bed. Colin hasn't been with a woman in 15 years; when Primrose first kisses him, he stays statue still, as if she and everything else would vanish were he to move. "Greenfingers" works overtime to make sure we miss none of its meanings. Owen manages to express renewal and joy and purpose, even at risk to himself, with a ghost of a smile or a quiet look of satisfaction at some flourishing new plant. He makes this solitary, self-possessed man's new avocation seem perfectly fitting.

USA TODAY

July 27, 2001, Friday, 'Greenfingers' sows a garden of delight BYLINE: Susan Wloszczyna

The marvelous cast -- sizzling-hot Clive Owen (Croupier) as the solitary prisoner, David Kelly (Waking Ned Devine) as a garden gnome of a geezer and a madly hatted Helen Mirren as the Martha Stewart of marigolds who mentors the jailed landscapers -- smartly underplay their performances.

Greenfingers especially gains from Owen's darkly handsome presence, although he's more at home as the mysterious chauffeur in those spiffy online BMW ads than in such obvious feel-good fare. Still, part of the reason the film amuses at all is the way it presents macho types getting in touch with their inner nurturer. How can you not smile when Owen's hard case is caught in the act of sweet-talking his fragile sprouts?

Los Angeles Times

July 26, 2001

His Work Speaks for Itself; British actor Clive Owen's laid-back magnetism is drawing comparisons to Robert Mitchum, Burt Lancaster and other strong, silent types. BYLINE: GENE SEYMOUR, NEWSDAY DATELINE: NEW YORK

BODY: One of the great paradoxes of motion pictures is the almost electric attraction audiences have to screen actors who are gifted at stillness as opposed to, well, being in motion. Think of Steve McQueen's blue-steel impassiveness or Clint Eastwood's granite stoicism or, even, Marilyn Monroe's luminous incredulity. Grab the frame, hold the frame and you, too, can be a legend. British actor Clive Owen has been showing more and more audiences that he's just as gifted at showing a lot without saying anything at all. In "Greenfingers," which opens Friday in Los Angeles and New York, Owen plays Colin Briggs, a sullen convict transformed into a dedicated and prodigiously talented gardener.

Owen knows there's art and craft involved in achieving such effects. "But I don't like to think about it too much," he said recently in a Manhattan publicist's office. "I think if you overanalyze, [a performance] can go bad. I'm never interested in listening to actors talk about how they 'got there,' wherever that is. The most important thing is what's on the screen. You watch a movie, see the thing and you either buy it or you don't." So far, Owen's most celebrated display of his less-is-more agility is "Croupier," Mike Hodges' sultry, atmospheric character study of a novelist who works as a dealer in a swank London casino. Although made three years before its American release a year ago, "Croupier" became last year's most stunning independent-film success, attributed in large part to Owen's cool assurance and laid-back magnetism. The film's U.S. triumph was so resounding that it was re-released in Great Britain this spring, setting off another wave of appreciative reviews and some more-than-idle chatter about Owen being considered as a potential James Bond. For the moment, Owen's way too busy to think about stuff like that. Since "Croupier," his career's been very much in motion, with prominent roles in two forthcoming, highly anticipated films: As a valet in Robert Altman's murder mystery, "Gosford Park," and as the bad guy chasing Matt Damon in "The Bourne Identity." He's also got a recurring role as the Driver in a series of short thrillers produced for the Internet by BMW and directed by such talents as John Frankenheimer, Ang Lee, Guy Ritchie and Wong Kar-Wei. And then there's "Greenfingers," whose script by American director Joel Hershman was inspired by a New York Times article, published three years ago, about the gardening triumphs of inmates at a progressive British corrections facility. "The last thing I wanted for the lead was a stiff-upper-lip type," Hershman says. "I was looking more for strong-and-silent, an old-fashioned movie presence like Mitchum or Lancaster, a tough guy with a lot of dignity and restraint. When I was researching the movie, I met one [convict] who had this quality, and Clive to me fit the bill. He has that quality that the classic American movie stars [have]. He doesn't have to do very much on screen to convey a lot of information. He's just there, bringing his own truth to the part." He's More Easygoing in Life Than on Screen In person, Owen is more animated and easygoing than the brooding, reserved persona he wears in both "Croupier" and "Greenfingers." Indeed, he seems energized by the post-"Croupier" trajectory of his career and is up for just about anything that comes his way. Does that include James Bond? "It's very flattering to be talked about in that way, and if someone's considering it, that would be fine," he said. "But years ago, I made a decision to stay in the U.K. as opposed to putting together a career here because the stuff that was coming my way in this country were smallish parts in not very well written movies. "I see a lot of big-budget movies here that are made in such a way that they'll put [high-profile] people in [to generate publicity or to justify the budget]. But it's hard for an actor to be good in them. I think to be very good in a small film is more important than being part of a big film just for the sake of being in it." Born 36 years ago in Coventry, Owen says he can't remember a time when he didn't want to be an actor, despite the skepticism of those he grew up with. After a stretch of unemployment, he attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. "Very intense training," he says of his academy days. "But until recently, RADA had no courses in how to perform in front of a camera. It was all theater. And since most of the first jobs you get are in TV, it's hard to adjust to those demands. "But I was very lucky because less than a couple years after graduating, I landed a lead role in a big TV series called 'Chancer' [1990], where I played this cocky, arrogant wheeler-dealer. That was a great training ground for learning how to work in film." Many more British TV roles followed, including a recent stint as a near-blind police detective in the series "Second Sight," which has been broadcast on these shores on PBS' "Mystery" series. He still yearns to stretch himself as a screen actor, referring to his work in the BMW series as "a kind of film school in itself." Nevertheless, he maintains his ties with the stage, "doing a play," he says, "every two years." He'll soon be starting rehearsals for a London revival of Peter Nichols' 1967 play "A Day in the Death of Joe Egg." "It's nice," he says, "to go into the theater. It's healthy to do different things, stage and screen, like exercising different parts of you. You need to stay in shape if you're in it for the long haul."

THE REVIEWS ARE BLOOMING! "One of the most delightful films in years!" -- Liz Smith, New York Post "Greenfingers has charm, joy and humor. You'll find yourself cheering!" -- Rex Reed, New York Observer "Love Blooms! Flowers Sprout! And against all odds, seeds of affection took root in this stony critic's heart." -- Nicole Keeter, Time Out NY "The FULL MONTY in full bloom!" -- Susan Wloszczyna, USA Today