A synchronicity is an inexplicable but deeply meaningful coincidence that can alter the course of our lives and shape our souls in the process. We all have experienced such sly winks of fate or seen them happen in the lives of others.

Nigel Cole directs this boisterously funny English comedy set in a small town on the Cornish coast. The snappy screenplay by Craig Ferguson and Mark Crowdy shows how there are always helping hands to usher us through the crises in our lives — especially when we stumble on the dark path through the forest of life.

Grace (Brenda Blethyn), a middle-aged housewife and amateur horticulturist, is shocked when her husband suddenly dies in a strange accident. She learns that he left her practically no money. Even worse, he had piled up huge debts for his business ventures and now a London-based banker is threatening to take over their country manor.

Grace, who has no experience in financial matters, comes up with a clever but dangerous scheme to save her home. She suggests that she and Matthew (Craig Ferguson), her Scottish gardener, use her greenhouse to grow marijuana. Their outlandish plan is hatched in secrecy but soon the whole town realizes what is happening. They even participate in nightly countdowns to the moment when the high-powered grow lights in the greenhouse are turned on.

Jean Shinoda Bolen has written: "Every time I have become aware of a synchronicity experience, I have had an accompanying feeling that some grace comes along with it." Although Grace doesn't expect any help from her neighbors, they all conspire to keep her project hush-hush — especially from the constable (Ken Campbell) who's obsessed with salmon poachers. Some of the colorful townsfolk include a vicar (Leslie Phillips), who watches horror pictures; a doctor (Martin Clunes), who has some idiosyncratic hobbies; and Nicky (Valerie Edmond), Matthew's pregnant girlfriend who is a fishing boat captain.

Once the harvest is ready, Grace travels to London and uses her husband's mistress (Jamie Foreman) to locate some drug dealers. When she finally meets Jacques (Tcheky Karyo), a French crime lord, Grace's adventure takes a gloriously unpredictable turn and her life is changed forever. Bolen is right — when the unseen hand of destiny touches us, there is no other way to describe it than as a moment of grace. The surprise ending is one that will send you from the theatre with a blissful smile on your face!