Metascore
46 out of 100

Mixed or average reviews - based on 25 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 7 out of 25
  2. Negative: 5 out of 25
  1. Big muscular guys pruning roses IS funny and charming.
  2. Only occasionally does the film fall into the trap of making the prisoners cute, but it never falters in important ways.
  3. 75
    Clumsier hands could have planted this load of pungent sap and come up with sticky fingers. But the creators of this based-on-truth fable carefully cultivate the material so it comes off fresher than it sounds.
  4. Proves a lovely, sweet alternative for audiences fed up with the latest hell-on-wheels action thriller or the newest horror film comedy spoof.
  5. Reviewed by: Connie Ogle
    63
    It's pleasant, mildly uplifting entertainment, one of the few recent movies to use plants as its muse.
  6. This is not challenging filmmaking by any means, more like a comfortable old slipper. But it's a perennial that's guaranteed to please.
  7. 63
    Entertaining and heartwarming -- especially when Mirren sweeps into scenes with acid observations that fail to disguise a heart of gold.
  8. 60
    It's hard not to be charmed by scenes like the one in which Briggs gives his posies a little pep talk, assuring them that just because they sprouted behind prison walls doesn't mean they can't compete with those hoity-toity flowers at Hampton Court.
  9. 60
    Ingratiating trifle.
  10. 50
    Amusing enough to watch and passes the time, but it's the kind of movie you're content to wait for on your friendly indie cable channel.
  11. 50
    Unambitious and transparent, but that doesn't mean it won't warm the hearts of audiences on both sides of the Atlantic.
  12. Between Owen's quiet intensity and Mirren's showy color, they make a complementary pair for screen or garden.
  13. Reviewed by: Elizabeth Barchas
    50
    Plants the seeds of comedy that grow into a mild feel-good flick, but it won't reap much viewer satisfaction.
  14. The latest in a line of quirky, feel-good British comedies, Greenfingers fits right into the breezily entertaining mold but doesn't expand it.
  15. 50
    Certainly pleasant enough, and if you can put the preachiness out of mind it's entertaining, in its square, conventional way.
  16. 50
    Owen and Mirren are fun to watch, but the film, despite the many shots of gardens in full bloom, lacks visual distinction.
  17. 40
    Watching this movie go through its simplistic dramatic motions, you begin to understand why some actors stick to summer stock and live Ibsen revivals.
  18. Relentlessly smarmy and contrived, and its pitch for the cause of prisoner rehabilitation preachy and heavy-handed.
  19. 40
    The film is as synthetic as a rubber rose, but it is all but indistinguishable from the organically grown, bred-in-Britain article.
  20. If your allergy to comedies bred from British style mugging crossed with Disney style prancing has, like mine, flared up in recent years, this hybrid from writer director Joel Hershman (''Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me'') will make you wheeze.
  21. Reviewed by: Dennis Harvey
    30
    This shameless knockoff marches lock-stepped through moves that were already looking as tired as the Macarena.
  22. Reviewed by: Reece Pendleton
    30
    Where "The Full Monty" earned its laughs with rich characterizations and a biting take on economic hardship, Greenfingers is content to trot out predictable stereotypes, adding a romantic subplot as filler.
  23. And then there's the overacting. And then there's the hamminess of the script. And then there's
  24. 20
    Ought to have been called "The Sap Also Rises."