Grow (Christian Movie Review)
Heartwarming, sweet, and wholesome, the classic storyline and goofy shenanigans are sure to be fun for the whole family.
About the Film
John McPhail’s charming new film, Grow, follows young Charlie Little’s attempt to grow the heaviest pumpkin, and how she finds family and belonging along the way. Electric performances from Priya-Rose Brookwell (Charlie) across Golda Rosheuvel (Dinah Little) and Nick Frost (Arlo) are just one of the many qualities that make this film sing. Heartwarming, sweet, and wholesome, the classic storyline and goofy shenanigans are sure to be fun for the whole family.
Aunt Dinah is a strong moral lead, providing Charlie care and a stable home when she needed it most. Despite financial hardships, Dinah took her in, sacrificing her own desires to support her long-lost niece. She is a hardworking, humble individual who, even though she has no idea what she’s doing, raises Charlie as her own. Charlie is a spirited, passionate individual, the perfect foil to Dinah. They complement each other perfectly and build each other up throughout the narrative.
The entire film is an encouragement to kids to get outside and play. Charlie has a gift where, if she sticks her hands into the soil or touches a plant, she can feel what they’re feeling. This could be viewed as magic, but to me it seems like a commentary on how we are connected to nature in a spiritual way, and we have a responsibility to care for the creation God entrusted in our hands.
The friendships throughout the film are wholesome and strong, offering an example for kids on healthy ways of interacting with each other. Charlie’s best friend, Oliver, offers wise counsel in times of trouble, and her plant mentor, Arlo, reminds her to be herself even if she is a bit different.
On the other side of the spectrum, the pumpkin-growing enemies exhibit dishonest strategies to take out their competition. Both of Charlie’s opponents use different methods of cheating to further their own chances of winning. One opponent realizes his wrong and redeems himself later on. The other is openly chastised, making clear to the audience what is right and what is wrong. The winner is the only pumpkin that was grown naturally and without foul play.
The biggest issue, for me, is Charlie’s mother’s failure to try. She comes back only because she was paid to and still tries to sweep Charlie away in her own selfish desires. While this is not painted in a good light, her mom doesn’t change or try to better herself and her relationship with Charlie. She gives up, with the audience inferring that she will be leaving Charlie once again. While Dinah’s care of Charlie makes up for the lack of her mother in her life, her mother’s failure to try is questionable at best.
When competition comes, Charlie is an excellent example of humility and grace. Even in disappointment, she congratulates the winner and shakes hands with the other competitors. In victory, she remains gracious, remembering all of the hard work it took her and her competitors to get there.
Grow could easily become a fall family tradition, valuing community, hard work, and the outdoors. The story features strong, fun, and respectful young characters encouraging kids to explore the outdoors and find friends who support and challenge them. I loved this film, and I am not a child, nor do I have kids. But, I know this is one I won’t hesitate to put on for my future offspring.
For Consideration
On the Surface—(Profanity, Sexual Content, Violence, etc.).
Language: None.
Violence: In a montage of pumpkin destroying chaos, there is a reenactment of the shower scene from Psycho with fake pumpkin blood going down the drain. It’s all in good fun, but may be disturbing to younger viewers.
Sexuality: A few innocent jokes such as one character asking another if Charlie was his.
Other: None.
Engage The Film
Comparison, Belonging, and Worth
Not only does this film represent several common struggles among kids, but it offers a healthy way to deal with them. Charlie struggles with comparison, belonging, and worth, having to overcome her past learned behaviors to discover a healthy community and a new heart.
Charlie enters the pumpkin growing competition, which naturally leads to comparison between her and the other competitors. Charlie learns her lesson after a run-in with an opponent. Oliver, wise beyond his years, says, “If you waste all your time worrying about what other people do, you’ll never accomplish anything yourself.” In a way, this is similar to God’s call on our lives. He gives each of us unique gifts and passions and, as Oliver said, if we worry about others’ gifts that we do not have, we forget our own place in His Body.
Related to comparison, Charlie struggles greatly with belonging. She is different, new, and feels the weight of growing up without a mom for some of the most formative years of her life. Slowly, the relationships she builds in her new town teach her that she does belong, and she doesn’t have to change who she is. In 1 Corinthians 12:18-20, Paul writes, “But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. If all were a single member, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, yet one body.” As Charlie discovers what part of the body she is, we should be reminded that we have strengths that are others’ weaknesses and weaknesses that are others’ strengths. But, as one Body – or secularly, as one community – we need each other and belong to each other as we’re made.
Perhaps the most heartbreaking struggle to watch is Charlie’s struggle with her self-worth. At the beginning of the film, Charlie can’t seem to separate herself from her mom, not accepting that her mom leaving has nothing to do with her. In one of hers and Dinah’s first conversations, Dinah has to remind her that, “she left you, remember? It’s what Polly’s always done… leave.” Immediately, Dinah is clarifying the blame is not on Charlie and her worth is not tied up with the decisions her mom has made, an important lesson especially for kids who are adopted or in foster care. Dinah becomes the mother Charlie always needed and Charlie the kid Dinah always needed. This isn’t to say Polly is evil, she does have her own problems to deal with, but this will hopefully help kids understand if a familial tragedy does occur, it is not their fault.
At the end of the film, Charlie is transformed from a rebellious, stubborn, broken little girl to a determined, gracious, healing champion, even in defeat; a result of Dinah’s actions of love reorienting Charlie’s understanding of family. God reminds us of our worth all throughout His Word, most recognizably in Psalm 139:14, “…for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.”
