SAVING GRACE

"Gentle in its humour, spectacular for its vistas, Saving Grace is a light hearted character driven tale about a young widow's determination to survive. The humour of course relies on the uncharacteristic behaviour of its central character, Grace, and its strengths are the delightful characters we meet along the way. The village community may be reminiscent of Waking Ned Devine, but the script struggles for credibility and rather than believing what happens, we feel as though it is all a bit ridiculous. But having said that, Saving Grace is an entertaining romp, a comedy of errors, that in many ways redeems itself by its ending, albeit fairy-tale like. Brendy Blethyn plays Grace with convincing sincerity, and while his character is over the top, Tcheky Karyo's French drug lord is entertaining. But you do need to take a leap in faith – after all the leap from threatening to chop off Grace's fingers to offering her a glass of wine is a pretty big one. When Grace and Matthew try out the merchandise with the striking coastline of glistening green water and crisp white spray beckon below, I couldn't help but thinking 'I want what she's having.' It is one of the moments that the sponteneity of the performances really transmits. The character actors steal the scenes: I especially like the part where the little old biddies starts brewing the leaves that they think are tea – we can almost inhale the aroma from our seats. Poignant, funny and a hit of total escapism, Saving Grace is a frivolous frolic and a totally legal indulgence."
Louise Keller

"Twice Academy Award nominated Brenda Blethyn (Secrets and Lies, Little Voice)
is an absolute delight in the title role of Saving Grace. The filmmakers must have been a little concerned that the title would lend itself to reviews titled 'Blethyn Saves Grace' but this would not be too far from the truth. Yes screenwriter and co-star Craig Ferguson has peppered a fast moving plot with snappy lines galore from the local barman's observations about Kafka and Jackie Collins to many gems from Grace such as "We've got a Swiss bank account. There's nothing in it, but we do have one". But even here it is Blethyn's deadly accurate timing that squeezes every ounce from the laugh. The big problem with Ferguson's script (from a story by Mark Crowdy) is it's reliance on cliché and thus its relentless predictability. Again it is the freshness of Blethyn that helps us overlook these difficulties. Television director Nigel Cole manages a few nice visuals, though it is most likely the special effects people who are most responsible for the film's best visual: the lighting up of the greenhouse. Otherwise, his choices are on the ordinary side. Blethyn's support cast give us comfortably likeable caricatures, ably assisting the star turn. But it is Blethyn's film. Her introduction in the greenhouse is almost a theatrical set piece, a moment which suggests immediately that she's going to have to be in top form to carry this film. And carry it she does. Her ability to turn hysteria into poignancy and back again quite seemlessly is to be revered. Brenda Blethyn turns Saving Grace into the feel good experience of the year."
Lee Gough