Mirren takes on US box office

Helen Mirren: In bloom for her latest film

By the BBC's Peter Bowes in Hollywood

Prime Suspect star Helen Mirren is back on the big screen in the US in a small-time British comedy about a group of prisoners who become gardeners.

Following on from British successes such as Billy Elliot and The Fully Monty, Greenfingers takes on the US box office on Friday.

The low-budget film features other well-known British actors including Clive Owen and David Kelly.

Mirren in her famous Prime Suspect guise

Mirren herself plays a flamboyant gardening expert called Georgina Woodhouse.

The plot, which is based on a true story, focuses on a group of long-serving inmates at an open prison, who turn to horticulture as a way of finding their inner, honest selves.

"It's lighter than the Full Monty - it's more comedic," says Mirren. "The Full Monty was a wonderful film and if we're as good I'll be very proud of that."

'Hackneyed'

Early reviews have not been kind to the quintessentially British comedy. "Suck all the integrity out of The Full Monty and you've got Greenfingers," wrote one critic.

Others have described the film as "knock-off," "hackneyed" and "unauthentic".

Clive Owen: Just one the film's well-known British actors

The general tone of reviews has been that Greenfingers is attempting to capitalise on the success of films like The Full Monty but that it is unlikely to be a hit.

While hoping for success in US cinemas, Mirren takes a pragmatic view of the state of the British film industry and its impact on the American market.

"The British have this great drawback in terms of film-making which is that they speak English - or at least they speak American," she explains.

"We share a common language and I think that because of that they never quite know where to place their movies and the films that always do the best in America are the parochial films."

Hype

Mirren points out that films like The Full Monty and Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels were "fairly successful" - but she believes the impact of such movies should be viewed with perspective.

"You read these absurd headlines in British newspapers - 'Billy Elliot takes America by storm,' - you know, because it's had a mild success really in terms of the overall picture. A very mild, nice, lovely, but you know, a mild success," she says.

Mirren says British film-makers are intimidated by American success

Mirren, who is best known for portraying Detective Chief Inspector Jane Tennison in the TV series Prime Suspect, says the press is largely to blame for hyping British movies.

"They exaggerate the success of a film and mislead the British into thinking that somehow the British are making an impact on the American film market which they're absolutely not," she says.

Greenfingers was inspired by an article in the New York Times about the real-life gardening exploits of British prisoners.

The American director Joel Hershman wrote the script and directed the film with the support of a US production team.

"It took an American to look at that particular world and see how funny it is or the potential for comedy in it," explains Mirren.

"I don't think a British person would have been able to be as objective as an American can be."

Struggle

Mirren says there is a long tradition of so-called British movies coming to fruition through the support of American film-makers.

"An awful lot of what appears to be a British film is actually really, truthfully, an American film.

"Greenfingers has a British cast but is written and directed by an American, distributed by an American, financed to a certain extent by an American.

Mirren starred with Nigel Hawthorne in The Madness of King George

"It was the same with The Madness of King George. It was completely financed in America - no British company stepped up and financed it."

While acknowledging that there are "incredibly talented" people in Britain, Mirren concludes that the British film industry will always struggle because it is both "over intimidated and over impressed by the American market".

The Oscar-nominated actress, who lives in Los Angeles, suggests the British lack an "understanding" of the business.

"As much as the American film industry is maligned in America and outside of America hugely maligned, the American film industry is brilliant," she explains.

"Of course it makes mistakes but the structure of the American film industry is a very powerful, very professional, very knowledgeable force out there. I'm very admiring of it."