24FPS @ BFI Flare 2021: The Greenhouse

Dir: Thomas Wilson-White

Four siblings are reuniting for their mother Ruth’s (Camilla Ah Kin) 60th birthday, several years after the death of their other Mum, Ruth’s wife Lillian (Rhondda Findleton). Only Beth (Jane Watt) has remained at home over the years, being there as Lillian died and to try to help Ruth cope afterwards. She has also discovered that the path at the bottom of their garden acts as a portal, transporting her back to the past, when both her mothers were alive, her siblings were home, and she was falling in love for the first time.

The Greenhouse falls pretty distinctly into two genres. One works better than the other. The more familiar part of the film is a fairly simple character-driven drama. A wife struggling to come to terms with the loss of her wife, even a few years later. Siblings who love each other but have a difficult relationship, at least partly because the eldest, Beth, feels as though she has become stuck while her brothers and sister have gone off to live their lives. These are also dynamics we find echoing in the flashback sequences, as Beth observes the past. These sequences aren’t wildly original, but they are well acted, in particular one scene in which Beth sees herself shout at a dying Lillian, only for her older self to desperately try to take it back, screaming her “sorry” to a memory, unable to change it even though it is right in front of her. This is by far the moment that best distills what the film is saying in these flashback sequences. 

The flashbacks also have a few moments that colour in the characters of the siblings. Beth’s tentative relationship with her friend Lauren (Harriet Gordon-Anderson) is interesting in how it speaks about the fact that even though her mothers are gay and one of her brothers is bi-sexual, Beth isn’t entirely comfortable with or confident in her sexuality. Also effective are the purely domestic scenes. The family dynamic is credibly fractious, but we also believe that the siblings and Ruth all love each other, especially during Ruth’s speech at her birthday party, which becomes something of a eulogy for Lillian.

What works less well is the sci-fi aspect of the film. In the beginning, it’s somewhat unclear how we are supposed to take what is happening. Beth could be having very vivid, lucid, dreams (which would perhaps better explain what everyone she sees in the past is their current age, despite flashbacks clearly going back to when she was about 16), when it becomes clear that she’s not the only one who has found this path, and thus that it isn’t a dream, the rules aren't especially well-defined, which means that a late attempt at a shift into horror—while it throws up some emotional moments—doesn’t feel credible within the film’s conceit.

Overall, The Greenhouse isn’t bad, but it’s messy. The sci-fi element trips over itself literalizing a fairly obvious point, but the straightforward drama sections showcase strong performances and some emotionally articulate writing from director Thomas Wilson-White.

★★½