- A pastor preoccupied with writing the perfect sermon fails to realize that his wife is having an affair, and his children are up to no good.
- Walter Goodfellow (Rowan Atkinson), the vicar for the small English country parish of Little Wallop, has let his marriage to Gloria (Kristin Scott Thomas) go stale, and he is so detached from his family that he has not taken notice that his seventeen-year-old daughter Holly (Tamsin Egerton) is going through a succession of relationships with unsuitable boyfriends, and his son Petey (Toby Parkes) fears going to school, owing to being bullied. Out of desperation for affection, Gloria begins to fall for the advances of Lance (Patrick Swayze), an American golf pro who is giving her "private" lessons. The problems upsetting the family start to fade away after Grace Hawkins (Dame Maggie Smith), the new housekeeper, arrives and starts tending to matters as an older, and rather darkly mysterious version of Mary Poppins (1964).—Brian Greenhalgh
- Gloria Goodfellow (Kristin Scott Thomas) has a normal life in the countryside along with her family. She's the mother of two children, one precocious teenage girl, Holly (Tamsin Egerton), and a timid boy, Petey (Toby Parkes), who's been bullied by a bunch of kids from his school. Occassionally, their peace is disrupted by a neighbor's annoying dog or a meddler neighbor. Gloria's husband, Reverend Walter Goodfellow (Rowan Atkinson), is a clumsy, but well respected preacher, who's preparing to give a speech in a religious convention at Cornwall. One morning, a charming, efficient and quite kind lady, Grace Hawkins (Dame Maggie Smith), arrives to work as a housekeeper at the Goodfellows' house. The family's life will change forever, because Grace will care for its integrity in her own special way. First, Grace will help Walter to relax and find his funny side during masses. Then, Grace finds out that Gloria is having an affair with her golf instructor, Lance (Patrick Swayze), a sort of pervert American man, interested in Gloria's daughter as well. Last but not least, Grace will manage herself to get rid of the bullies who are giving a hard time to Petey. Despite this ideal reality, Gloria will discover a secret that Grace has been hiding for more than forty years.—Alejandro Frias
- When a young pregnant woman named Rosie Jones (Emilia Fox) boards a train, her enormous trunk starts leaking blood. Questioned by the police about the dead bodies inside, Rosie calmly reveals they are her unfaithful husband and his mistress. Convicted of manslaughter, she is imprisoned in a unit for the criminally insane due to diminished responsibility.
Forty three years later, Walter Goodfellow (Rowan Atkinson), the village vicar of Little Wallop, is very busy writing the perfect sermon for a convention. He's completely oblivious to his family's problems: his wife Gloria's (Kristin Scott Thomas), unfulfilled emotional/sexual needs, starts an affair with her golf instructor Lance (Patrick Swayze), his teenage daughter Holly's (Tamsin Egerton) growing sex drive and physical maturity who constantly changes boyfriends; and his son Petey (Toby Parkes), a victim of bullying at school.
New housekeeper, Grace Hawkins (Maggie Smith), becomes involved in their lives, learning about their problems: neighbor Mr. Brown's (James Booth) Jack Russell terrier, barks non-stop, preventing Gloria from sleeping; Petey has bullies; and Gloria has an affair with Lance (Lance calls Gloria, and Grace picks the phone and Lance talks to her without realizing that she isn't Gloria). Meanwhile Walter is nothing but sweet to Grace and makes her feel very welcome in his home. Walter is the object of ridicule for the entire village, since he is incompetent in every sense of the word. He is only tolerated due to his position as the vicar of the town. Even Lance approaches Walter and mocks him for the way the village makes fun of him, and yet Walter is only polite to Lance in return. ONe day, Gloria is spending time with Lance when she picks his phone and finds that he has been in touch with another girl, who Lance has been seeing on the side. Grace sets out to solve the problems in her own way by killing Clarence (the dog) as well as Mr. Brown (when Brown sees Grace trying to bury Clarence's body during a stormy night and Grance notices this), sabotaging the brakes on the bullies' bicycles which injures one of them and killing Lance with a flat iron outside the house for videotaping Holly undressing one night. Grace puts Holly on the path to recovery by getting her interested in cooking.
As Walter prepares the sermon for the conference, Grace suggests adding humor (Like the joke about how God visited Earth 2000 yrs ago, met a nice Jewish girl and they are still talking about it). Also, seeing he has let his relationship slide due to his devotion to God, she shows him he can love his wife and God by looking at the erotic references in the Song of Solomon. As the problems in the household seem to gradually clear, Walter leaves for his convention. Gloria and Holly see Grace's photo on the news, showing her release and previous offenses, and they begin to realize what she's done (They find Lance's phone in Grace's large trunk in her room. She also shows the girls the video that Lance had been shooting of Holly secretly while she was undressing in her room). She's Gloria's long-lost mother Rosie Jones, who's come to meet her. After briefly processing the flood of information, Gloria asserts that when having a problem with someone, one cannot just kill them.
Grace mentions this is the point she and her doctors could never agree on. Despite their disagreements, Gloria tries to help Grace with Lance's body, but cannot handle it. Over a cup of tea, the three women decide not to tell Walter or Petey any of what has happened.
Nagging congregant Mrs. Parker (Liz Smith) visits to discuss the problem of the "church flower arranging committee". Grace, erroneously believing Mrs. Parker is about to turn them in for her crimes, attempts to hit her with a frying pan but Gloria stops her. Mrs. Parker, shocked, has a heart attack and dies. Walter returns from the convention just then and sees Mrs. Parker's body, but not realizing she is dead. Soon after, Grace leaves the family when order is seemingly restored among them.
Walter then talks to Bob (Patrick Monckton) and Ted (Rowley Irlam), the waterworks employees, who say there is too much algae and the vicar's pond needs to be drained. Remembering Grace's victims' bodies are in the pond, Gloria, with a strained smile, offers them some tea. The film ends with an underwater shot depicting the bodies that had been placed in the pond, including the recently added Bob and Ted (implying that Gloria was the one who killed Bob and Ted and put their bodies inside the pond).
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