Grow review – polished pumpkin growing caper stuffed with perky charm and comedy talent

<p>Featuring the likes of Nick Frost, Jane Horrocks and Golda Rosheuvel, this family heartwarmer makes for perfectly serviceable seasonal fare</p><p>This perky British kids’ movie lists five different people in the writing credits (two of whom chipped in with “additional material”); this may explain in part why its story beats arrive with such metronomic precision, and the characters feel as if they were grown hydroponically in a lab. Which is of course ironic because the setting is a family-run farm where agronomist-owner Dinah (Golda Rosheuvel) decides to go organic after being inspired by her magical niece Charlie (Priya-Rose Brookwell, adorable) who can sense plants’ emotions by touch.</p><p>Having only been recently introduced, for reasons the otherwise overpolished script fails to explain, Charlie and Dinah get to know each other over the course of a few seasons – which just so happens to be the length of time it takes to grow a pumpkin for the annual village competition. Charlie hopes to use the prize money to find her mother, rumoured to have run off to become a movie star in California.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2025/oct/08/grow-review-polished-pumpkin-growing-caper-stuffed-with-perky-charm-and-comedy-talent">Continue reading...</a>