Quirky director John McPhail returns with a magical small-town story perfect for Halloween, featuring giant pumpkins, eccentric neighbors and a plucky young heroine.
By James Verniere/Boston Movie News

From Scotsman John McPhail of the quirky 2017 zombie tale “Anna and the Apocalypse” comes another, arguably even quirkier story of a small town obsessed with growing giant pumpkins and a little girl who has a special relationship with plant life, pumpkins included. It’s the perfect Halloween film for you and your kids. Featuring Golda Rosheuvel (“Bridgerton”) as a small farm owner named Dinah facing a crisis, Priya Rose-Brookwell as the plant-savvy Charlie Little, the niece her Aunt Dinah didn’t know she had, and Englishman Nick Frost of “Shaun of the Dead” as Dinah’s eccentric neighbor Arlo, the film is a hoot. Charlie Little (Rose-Brookwell) has been a resident of a children’s home when we meet her. She believes that her absent mother, Polly (Kathryn Drysdale), is working in Hollywood.

The film has onscreen titles, beginning with “Spring.” Charlie, who communes with plants, arrives at her aunt’s farm, where she meets slothful farmhand Boris Mudd (Joe Wilkinson), who makes Charlie spray her aunt’s crop with insecticide. The town where Charlie finds herself is called Mugford. It’s “the pumpkin capital of the world.” There’s a statue of the town’s founder with a pumpkin. Every year, Mugford hosts a pumpkin-growing contest usually won by the to-the-manor-born Lord Sinclair Smythe-Gherkin (Tim McInnerny) and his snooty wife Lady Veronica Smythe-Gherkin (comedy legend Jane Horrocks). The plot pits Charlie against the Smyth-Gherkins and Mr. Gregory (Jeremy Swift), a local mad scientist who grows a giant pumpkin at Gargana Laboratories using potent fertilizers, and is the father of Charlie’s new friend Oliver (Dominic McLaughlin).

Will the withdrawn Dinah warm up to Charlie? You know she will. But “Grow,” which was written by Nick Guthe and writing partners Ruth Fletcher and Christos N. Gage (TV’s “Daredevil”) has a charming Dickensian lead character in Charlie Little, loads of British peculiarity, a marvelous cast including Fisayo Akinade as Mr. Gregory’s assistant mad scientist, and giant pumpkins.

The story is a variation on the theme of the ancient English folktale “Jack and the Beanstalk,” featuring Charlie as the girl version of the English boy hero and stock character Jack. According to one source, some experts trace this story back 5,000 years to Indo-European roots. Those seeds are old.

“Grow” has a bit of Netflix’s “Wednesday” magic. In the section labeled “Fall,” Boris becomes a true villain. We get playful references to the shower sequence in “Psycho” and the horse head in the bed from “The Godfather.” Charlie’s mother Polly shows up with a boyfriend who is a total twit. Yes, “Grow” is another tale of a child facing adversity with spunk and dreams of a better future. But there is a reason that we have never tired of such stories. It’s pumpkin season, and you should “Grow.”

‘Grow’

Rating: PG thematic elements, suggestive reference, brief profanity

Cast: Golda Rosheuvel, Priya Rose-Brookwell, Tim McInnerny, Jane Horrocks

Director: John McPhail

Writers: Nick Guthe, Ruth Fletcher, Christos N. Gage

Running time: 1 hour, 47 minutes

Where to Watch: In theaters

Grade: B+