Ready for a fairy tale about "the oddest of oddballs" — a young woman who has imprisoned herself in a repetitive world of rigid schedules and locked doors? Rumor has it that she was abandoned by her parents in a park and raised briefly by ducks before being sent to a Catholic orphanage. Can this solitary soul, who has grown up with an aversion of nature and a fear of disorder, find contentment as a gardener and children's fiction writer? Her path to freedom, love, and fulfilment lies in relationships with three others who have their own special brands of oddness.
Bella Brown (Jessica Brown Findlay) lives alone in a rented London house. Her life is meticulously arranged: her clothes are grey and black, the food in her pantry is stacked in order, she has different toothbrushes for each day, and she always checks the locks of her house and touches two door panels before leaving home. Bella loves books and has found a job at a library. She is an effective and efficient employee, except for her inability to arrive before 9 a.m., a requirement of her legalistic and authoritarian boss (Anne Chancellor).
Meanwhile at home, Bella earns the ire of her irritable neighbor, Alfie Stephenson (Tom Wilkinson), for neglecting her garden. He calls her a "horticultural terrorist" and is pleased when the landlord orders her to fix it up or face eviction in a month. In the ensuing skirmish with her neighbor, Bella scores some points by hiring away Alfie's cook Vernon (Andrew Scott) after seeing Alfie mercilessly bullied him. Vernon, a widowed single dad with two little girls, spurs Bella onward in the garden project even though she is repelled by flora. Sadly, her new friend cannot assist her due to allergies.
As in many other delightful fairy tales, characters are turned around from enemies into allies. Vernon promises to resume cooking meals for Alfie, and Alfie agrees to help Bella restore the garden by sharing his expertise. In one touching scene, he walks her through his garden, explaining the delights of a continual succession of blooming flowers.
Writer and director Simon Aboud has fashioned an enchanting movie laced with magical realism that celebrates the transformations that can take place when love and wonder arrive on the scene. While trying to write a story on her typewriter in the kitchen, Bella has no inspiration until she meets Billy (Jeremy Irvine) at the library. He is an ardent lover of literature but what interests her most is Luna, the mechanical flying bird he has created. Their intimate relationship proceeds from a tender kiss. Meeting Billy and seeing Luna seed in her mind a story about a flightless bird who dreams of flying.
Yes, it is possible for those of us who are oddballs to open the doors of our self-imposed prisons and find love that enables us to move into community, to create fantastic gardens, and to share with the world the stories we were destined to write. All we have to do is to let go and surrender to the light and the liberation arriving at just the right moment to revitalize us.