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Harrison's Flowers
2000
Andie MacDowell is phenomenal as Sarah Lloyd, a devoted wife and mother who goes to former Yugoslavia to find her husband Harrison (David Strathairn) when he disappears and is assumed dead. Sarah and Harrison share a deep love and understanding, but Harrison, a Pulitzer Prize-winning photo journalist, is frequently away on .. Read more
| Starring | Andie MacDowell, David Strathairn, Elias Koteas, Adrien Brody |
|---|---|
| Director | Elie Chouraqui |
| Genres | Drama |
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Harrison's Flowers
Andie MacDowell is phenomenal as Sarah Lloyd, a devoted wife and mother who goes to former Yugoslavia to find her husband Harrison (David Strathairn) when he disappears and is assumed dead. Sarah and Harrison share a deep love and understanding, but Harrison, a Pulitzer Prize-winning photo journalist, is frequently away on business and the family is starting to suffer. He takes an assignment in the former Yugoslavia, promising Sarah he'll be back for their son's birthday, but he never returns. Knowing in her gut that he's alive, Sarah journeys to find him and discovers the insanity and horror of war. The strength of HARRISON'S FLOWERS lies in its nuanced performances and strong cinematography. Andie MacDowell is alternately gentle, irrational, compassionate, and fierce and her eyes reflect a quiet intensity that's mesmerizing. Adrien Brody's depiction of Kyle, a cynical, drug-addicted photo journalist, is maddening and engaging. His transformation from a bitter, self-centered, wannabe hot shot photographer into Sarah's loyal friend is heartbreaking. The battle scenes are brutal and shocking and reveal the kinds of risks that journalists take when they aggressively pursue a story. Nicola Pecorini's filming captures the finest details as if every moment were a fleeting memory.
| Starring | Andie MacDowell, David Strathairn, Elias Koteas, Adrien Brody |
|---|---|
| Director | Elie Chouraqui |
| Studio | PATHE DISTRIBUTION |
| Run time | DVD: 2 hrs 6 mins |
| Certificate | |
| Genres | Drama |
| Language | DVD: English |
| Released | DVD: 04 Aug 2003 Production year: 2000 |
| Format | DVD |
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Critics' reviews
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Having made a couple of interesting French films, director Elie Chouraqui's career has stalled since her acceptance of international assignments. Man on Fire merely flirted with the situation in the Middle East and this melodrama scarcely makes more meaningful use of the internecine slaughter in the former Yugoslavia. Indeed, it's little more than a heart-tugging backdrop for Chouraqui's real story: worried Andie MacDowell's selfless search for missing photojournalist husband, David Strathairn. Adopting a curiously US-centric world view, this achingly sincere (and, in MacDowell's case, seriously miscast) picture seems to intimate that a calamity isn't legitimate unless it's appeared in Newsweek.
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Most helpful member's review
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8 out of 8 people found this review helpful
Harrowing tale of the Balkans War
Harrison (David Strathairn) is a photo journalist working for Newsweek when he asks his editor to find him a cushy desk job so he can stay home with his kids more. Whilst waiting for the 'overpaid' post to materialise, he is sent to the former Yugoslavia for a week to cover the 'Ethnic skirmishes' that are beginning to break out. Days later, the punch-ups turn out to be full-blown civil war and Harrison is reported dead. Everyone mourns, except his wife (Andie McDowell) who sets out to travel the besieged town of Vukovar to find him and bring him home. As she teams up with other photographers (Adrien Brody and Brendan Gleeson), what unravels is a moving, frequently harrowing and deeply disturbing account of life, or more accurately death, in the Balkans war.
The plot is, at best, implausible, and though the performances are all solid, Brody alone excels. However, the real interest in this film lies in the coverage of the war itself: a bloody, indiscriminate extermination of ethnic groups that happened in Europe at the close of the twentieth century. That humans could perpetrate the atrocities is unbelievable enough; that the rest of Europe sat back and let it happen in this day and age is unforgivable. For these reasons alone, this is a film that everyone should watch. Also of interest is the portrayal of the press: part glory-mungers, part heroes, they keep taking the photographs 'because nobody else will' and are urged by all they meet to continue their work. Such depictions help to set these 'real' journalists apart from tabloid hacks.
Not for the faint hearted, many scenes are graphic and disturbing. -
Most recent members' review
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2 out of 3 people found this review helpful
Worthy but overlong
Few English language films have yet to deal with the recent Balkan problems. This little seen item from French director Elie Chouraqui aims carefully but nevertheless misses its target.
A fine cast (particularly MacDowell, Brody and Gleeson) can't quite bring to life the daily stresses of warzone photojournalists, the scriptwriters having to cope with the implausibility of the wife placing herself in harm's way to find her missing in action husband.
However the film has many fine points and convincingly creates the ex-Yugoslavia of the early '90s.
It just could have been so much better. -
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Harrison's Flowers
Andie MacDowell is phenomenal as Sarah Lloyd, a devoted wife and mother who goes to former Yugoslavia to find her husband Harrison (David Strathairn) when he disappears and is assumed dead. Sarah and Harrison share a deep love and understanding, but Harrison, a Pulitzer Prize-winning photo ...
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