Dare to Be Wild

Falling somewhere between Richard Laxton's Grow Your Own (2007) and Alan Rickman's A Little Chaos (2014), Vivienne De Courcy's debut feature is eminently watchable, if a little too twee to drive its eco message home. It is the story of Mary Reynolds (Emma Greenwell), the 27-year-old Irishwoman who became the youngest winner of the Gold Medal at the Chelsea Flower Show in 2002, even after her ideas were stolen. Christine Marzano is suitably hissable as the unscrupulous adversary, while Alex Macqueen is splendidly snooty as another of Mary's functionaries. Yet, while De Courcy conveys her determination to rebel against the manicured designs that have taken horticulture away from its wild roots, she devotes too much time to the blossoming romance between Mary and botanist Christy Collard (Tom Hughes bristling with muscular philanthropy). There is evocative use of the scenery in Cork and Africa, doing justice to the colourful flora, but in the end, this lacks its heroine's free spirit.