`GRACE' DOESN'T LET GRASS GROW UNDER ITS FEET.

Byline: David Kronke Staff Writer

``Saving Grace'' is a British pot comedy that even the generations that came of age before marijuana insinuated itself into mainstream culture can appreciate. Call it ``Toking Weed Divine'' and you wouldn't be too far off the mark.

Brenda Blethyn (an Oscar nominee for both ``Secrets and Lies'' and ``Little Voice'') stars as the Grace in question, a woman whose husband died jumping out of an airplane without a parachute and left her beyond her ears in debt. She's left so deeply in hock, in fact, that she risks losing her centuries-old home in the small but utterly scenic town of Cornwall, as well as all its contents.

Salvation, of a curious sort, comes to her in the form of her ne'er-do-well gardener Matthew (``The Drew Carey Show's'' Craig Ferguson), who's also a grave digger and has been supplying the surrounding populace with marijuana, a potent blend that he's not terribly adept at growing. The two transplant the plants to her greenhouse with amazing results: the hyper-electrical glow of her intensive growth plan becomes an eventful, nightly light show for the locals, and the result, as she herself soon can attest - through a severe case of the giggles - is primo stuff, worth hundreds of thousands of British pounds.

Of course, there are plenty of obstacles in the way of Grace's solvency. Matthew's secretly pregnant girlfriend Nicky (Valerie Edmond) suddenly takes a dim view of his entrepreneurialism, the local constabulary may not be as clueless as it seems, and there's the small matter of finding a dealer powerful and ruthless enough to move so much weed.

``Saving Grace'' veers frequently and dangerously toward playing as a little too cute, but it's rescued by a number of sage and funny performances. Blethyn, for one, isn't nearly so strident as she was in her Oscar-nominated turns. A scene in which she confidently confronts her husband's mistress (Diana Quick), only to have her illusions shattered by the woman (who later turns out to be an ally), is a minor masterpiece of acting, as is the sequence in which she tests her product personally with Matthew.

Ferguson (who co-wrote the film with Mark Crowdy) charms in an easy, off-handed way, and Martin Clunes, who gave a brilliantly showy performance in a recent BBC America production, ``Sex & Death,'' nearly steals the show as the town's physician who, despite his intense denials, obviously does inhale. Phyllida Law (Emma Thompson's mother) and Linda Kerr Scott have a couple of priceless scenes as local biddies who mistake Grace's stash for tea leaves and are uproariously transformed.

Sundance Film Festival audiences named ``Saving Grace'' their favorite movie this year, and it's certainly a crowd pleaser, even if its conclusion is both wildly silly and more than a little pat. Director Nigel Cole exploits his gorgeous locations to more than ample effect (though a couple of key scenes seem to have been left on the editing-room floor). You'll laugh, irresistibly, and you won't even suffer from a case of the munchies afterward.

The facts

--The film: ``Saving Grace'' (R; drug use, language).

--The stars: Brenda Blethyn, Craig Ferguson, Martin Clunes, Tcheky Karyo, Valerie Edmond.

--Behind the scenes: Directed by Nigel Cole. Written by Mark Crowdy and Craig Ferguson. Produced by Mark Crowdy, Craig Ferguson, Torsten Leschly. Released by Fine Line Features.

--Running time: One hour, 45 minutes.

--Playing: Landmark Westside Pavilion, West Los Angeles, Laemmle's Sunset 5, West Hollywood, Laemmle's Monica, Santa Monica, Laemmle's Town Center 5, Encino, Laemmle's Playhouse 7, Pasadena.

--Our rating: Three stars