- guardian.co.uk,
- Monday September 04 2000 17:16 BST
The UK comedy Saving Grace, released in Britain earlier in the year to minimal fuss, is on the verge of international blockbuster success and Oscar recognition. The film, starring Brenda Blethyn as a widow who turns around her ailing fortunes by growing marijuana in her greenhouse, has higher per-screen takings in the US than box-office mammoth X-Men.
The film, which won an audience award at the Sundance Film Festival in January, opened on only 30 screens in the US three weeks ago, but such was its success that distributor Fine Line expanded coverage to 250 screens the subsequent weekend. Now, Philip Reid of UK film and TV rights company PrimeEnt tells Reuters, "Saving Grace is demonstrating all the characteristics of becoming a major international hit."
Nigel Cole's film, which includes scenes featuring pensioners unwittingly spaced out on cannabis, grossed £3m on its British release, making it little more than a modest success. Unimpressed Guardian critic Xan Brooks called it "faintly unrealised, dramatically stodgy and rather too in love with its own naughtiness".
