Harrison's Flowers (2000) User Reviews (85)

Brody blossoms in a gritty war drama, once you get past the contrived set-up

[DrMMGilchrist · 8/10 · 17 August 2003]

'Harrison's Flowers' is a harrowing drama set during the 1990s Balkan wars, seen through the eyes of war photographers and correspondents. I don't recall it getting a cinema release here in the UK - but caught up with it on DVD.

The 'hook' of the story is that Sarah Lloyd (Andie MacDowell) travels to Croatia in 1991 to try to find and rescue her husband Harrison, a prize-winning journalist who is missing, presumed killed. (The flowers of the title are those in his greenhouse - tended in his absence by their young son). It's a contrivance - indeed, because we don't see the characters together for long, it's difficult to invest much in their relationship - but functions as the plot mechanism (however creaky) to get the heroine away from her safe life in the US into the war zone, where her adventures really start. So it's essentially a classic quest-and-rescue narrative - unusually, with a woman doing the seeking. (Hence, I suspect, some of the criticisms about Sarah's search risking orphaning her children; I'm not sure this would be raised if the sexes of missing person and seeker were reversed.)

The film does not glamourise the realities of late 20C Balkan warfare, graphically depicting the atrocities perpetrated by all sides in the wars which engulfed the former Yugoslavia. The story reaches its dramatic climax with the siege of Vukovar.

Adrien Brody gives an outstanding performance as the bitter, troubled but brave young front-line photojournalist Kyle Morris. Like many in his profession, Kyle takes drugs and swears like a trooper - but he also has courage, integrity, and the face of an El Greco saint. He is the real hero of the story, and Brody, a truly remarkable actor, comes to dominate the film. Brendan Gleeson is also excellent as his older colleague, Stevenson. It is refreshing, too, to see Andie MacDowell in a role in which she is not simply eye-candy/cute chick-flick heroine. The fact that Sarah is not always likable is one of the strengths of the film, and surely a sign that it is a European production: Hollywood films seem too hamstrung at times by worrying about making their protagonists 'likable' - flawed, difficult characters are more human and more interesting. Gerard Butler and Alun Armstrong, among others, provide good support.

As to whether Sarah finds Harrison, or if she and her friends make it home in one piece - I'm not saying: see the film! All I will say is, it did not turn out how I had expected, and my h/c complex kicked in significantly at one point.

On DVD, get the French 2-disc Special Edition if you can. There are deleted scenes (mainly Sarah and Harrison, family and friends in the US), cast interviews, a digital effects feature, theme song video, & c.. Sadly, the only UK release was a single disc with just a trailer. One of the deleted scenes addresses an issue which concerned some reviewers - Sarah's guilt-feelings about leaving her children. The interview with Adrien Brody (looking very handsome) is interesting: he discusses how he sees Kyle's relationship with Sarah, and also how he drew on his photographer mother's colleagues in portraying the character.

Hugely Underrated War Drama With An Amazing Cast

[gogoschka-1 · 8/10 · 11 February 2018]

Outstanding war drama. Grim, realistic - and what a fantastic cast. I have no idea why this film isn't more widely known - it certainly deserves to be - or actually, I do have an idea why it tanked. The cheesy title plus the fact that Andie MacDowell - the (then) "rom-com queen" - is in it, and that the film received next to no marketing are very likely reasons why nobody went to see this. But YOU should. It's worth it. 8 stars out of 10.

In case you're interested in more underrated masterpieces, here's some of my favorites:

imdb.com/list/ls070242495

Its a matter of feeling

[jarius · 8/10 · 24 November 2003]

I just saw "Welcome to Sarajevo", a film that got a lot of press and positive remarks when it came out. I only suspect that much of the press was based on the fact that it came out only a couple of years after the end of that terrible war in Bosnia.

Just as in "Welcome" this film also depicts the life of journalists, trying to understand and convey the happenings in a country once believed to be almost western. (Which, I suspect, is the reason that it had such an impact on the western psyche.) As everbody else has pointed out this is where the best characters are found, especially Adrian Brodys character.

Several others have already pointed out that the main story revolving around a lost love and an heroic wife trying to save her husband is really awkward. But since you need somekind of story, that might just as well be it. I saw this film a second time just recently and actually managed to ignore the plot and focuse on the description of the madness that was eastern Croatia in the early 1990´s.

This film has an incredible feeling, the settings, the photography and the score makes it come really close to being in an actual war. I cant really praise this enough. Compared to "Welcome" this film hits you in the guts as it shows the brutality of urban warfare and the senseless killings that occur in all wars.

Other films about Bosnia that are recommended if you like this one, "No mans land", "Pretty Village, Pretty fire" and "Savior". And why not give "Welcome" a chance too.

Realistic and by most part very accurate display of urban warfare

[stojcic · 17 November 2004]

As someone who had lived through this war [I live in Osijek, town frequently mentioned in the movie, only 30 kilometers from Vukovar] and have seen the atrocities first hand, I'll start by commenting the realistic value. To my surprise, the Harrison flowers turned out to be very accurate in portraying what it was like. The details, such as locations, army uniforms and equipment, names, places, scenes and the geographic and historic facts, are pretty much all spot-on true. There are few barely noticeable mistakes, but it'd be nitpicking on my behalf even mentioning them. So, to anyone interested in seeing what the end 20th centuries warfare really looks like, I highly recommend it. It's miles ahead of Holywoods cheezy Rambo-style war movies and by it's ruthless realism it really is a visual kick in the gut.

As for the plot - the love story that serves as a guideline seems pretty much unnecessary and hard to believe. It has occurred to me that it'd be far more believable if Andie MacDowel was the photojournalist lost in the war-zone and her husband goes to get her out, not the other way around. So, those looking for a warm love tale, this will hardly be the best choice. Those interested in seeing the insanity of the easter-Europe 1991. war conflict, the cruelty and danger of modern photojournalism - I can hardly think of anything better than this.

Tedious love story comes alive only in gripping war scenes...

[Doylenf · 6/10 · 1 August 2005]

HARRISON'S FLOWERS, a film title that goes nowhere in explaining what this movie is all about, is perhaps an apt title for the aimless storytelling technique that takes up the first forty-five minutes of story exposition. It gives no clue as to what we are about to witness once the heroine decides to trace the whereabouts of her journalist husband in war-torn Yugoslavia, circa 1991.

The idea that a loving wife would put herself and everyone else around her in constant danger in the midst of a savage civil war raging all around them, in order to reach the side of the husband everyone tells her is dead, is even more ludicrous on film than it is in the pages of a script. Nor is it helped by the disturbing performance of Andie MacDowell who puts herself in the kind of situations that would turn a normal person into a basket case, but plods on determined to find the missing husband.

To make matters worse, her missing hubby is played by David Straithairn, an actor with all the charisma of a wet mop, who has been neglecting his wife and children due to the pressures of his job as a photojournalist for Newsweek. His wife seems oblivious to the danger she heads for, even after a traveling companion is abruptly shot in the head by Croatian soldiers. A more compelling actor cast as the Pulitzer Prize winning journalist might have made MacDowell's mission more credible.

Given short shrift are actors in the supporting cast, with the exception of Adrien Brody as a scruffy looking coke-sniffing hipster who is so sorry that he dissed her husband at a social event that he is willing to make up for it by escorting her through battle zones. He uses the "f" word as an expletive every time he utters a thought. At one point, asked to explain his actions, he says cynically: "I always wanted to be a boy scout." But short shrift is indeed the fate of Diane Baker as MacDowell's mother and Gerard Butler in a brief supporting role that has no function at all in the plot. No wonder Butler, who had only a few good supporting roles before his stint as PHANTOM OF THE OPERA, was so little known to most film fans.

The war zone scenes are gripping and powerfully filmed, but the slim love story that holds all the threads together is a weak one and most of the scenes leading up to the street battles are so poorly paced that tedium sets in and never quite lets up.

All of it is handsomely photographed but it seems like so much care was wasted on a story that limps to a less than satisfying conclusion.

A Journey into the Journalist's Personal Hell

[nertz · 9/10 · 31 January 2003]

Harrison's Flowers is a journey into a journalist's personal hell. While some may feel that the premise of the story is rather lame and confabulated, it serves a purpose. To show the human side of the photo journalists who bring the horrors of the world to those of us who, as they noted in the movie, are just worried about getting a parking ticket.

Too often when we non-journalists see photos of war zones we are horrified and, at the same time, we are dumbfounded as to how someone could be so inhuman and unfeeling as to photograph such graphic examples of man's inhumanity to man. Harrison's Flowers is excellent at showing us that just as a reader we can't stop looking at the horror even though we are revolted, the journalist cannot stop photographing and documenting it even though the human side of them is revolted as well.

As for Andie MacDowell's so-called wooden performance, one must remember that in this film she is seeing her husband's and his colleagues' world through their eyes for the first time. How quickly would any of us be able to break out of our shock-like trance and be totally outraged or emotional if this were the first time we were seeing it? Even the veteran photo journalist portrayed by Brendan Gleeson was paralyzed with shock more than once in the film. Andie MacDowell's character came from such an insulated world that seemingly emotionless shock was the perfect way to portray Sarah, who simply cannot fathom what she sees unfolding around her.

Harrison's Flowers is an excellent portrayal of the Serbo-Croatian hell that descended upon that part of Europe and irreparably tore apart the life of anyone in its path.

Left me ambivalent

[peter-ramshaw-1 · 6/10 · 17 June 2008]

I liked this movie a lot but it still seemed somehow 'wrong' to me. The storyline was very stilted and unbelievable (yeah, a woman who knows nothing about photography and war will travel to the Balkans and rescue her husband from those complete animals? No. Even Bruce Willis might struggle :-)).

I was a press photographer for many years and got into a lot of tight situations (not wars fortunately) and some of the scenes seemed 'real' to me and some really 'unreal'.

I thought Andie McDowell did a reasonable job. So Did Aiden Brody but SOMEONE tell me why he stopped being an arsehole and became a good guy? The plot seemed to slip there about the middle. Also the father-son relationship here is so thin you'd fall through it. The kid felt neglected and then and tended his dad's plants for three months? Really? Hey, it's not bad to watch (some good war scenes in there) but this is a way big waste of money. You can try to be 'Saving Private Ryan' and 'Sleepless in Seatle' and expect to either succeed or have film-goers rave about you (well, theoretically you could I guess, but this effort falls way short).

The Battle of Vukovar

[dk777 · 9/10 · 7 June 2021]

An emotional film about a woman's search for her husband, shown through events that really happened in the Croatian city of Vukovar.

The city of Vukovar was destroyed by the JNA (Yugoslav People's Army) and Serb paramilitaries. Unfortunately, that really happened in 1991, and the hospital we see in the film really does exist, Serb paramilitaries pulled wounded Croatian civilians and soldiers out of it and killed most of them.

The massacre occurred shortly after Vukovar's capture by the JNA (Yugoslav People's Army ) and paramilitaries from neighboring Serbia. In that period, it was the fiercest battle in Europe since 1945, and Vukovar was the first major European city completely destroyed since World War II.

The film is really hard to watch, because the atrocities we see in the film, committed by Serbian paramilitaries and the JNA (Yugoslav People's Army), really happened in 1991.

The cast evoked the emotions and all the horrors of the war, the film is emotional, especially for those who survived the war.

The footage showing Serb paramilitaries entering the city and singing a truly disgusting song is faithfully reconstructed in the film and when you look at the actual footage from 1991, it is almost identical.

The cinematography is realistic and the directing is excellent. An emotional and impressive film.

Emotional war/love drama

[ivanmessimilos · 7/10 · 23 November 2023]

I watched this movie again after several years of delay. Now I experienced it much better. For me personally, a very moving film, especially the second half, since it is about a real war and crimes against people in my homeland, Croatia. That part seemed very real to me, almost like a documentary, but it is clear to me that it is not the focus and that is not the main goal of the film. The best role for me was from Brody, a complex character, emotional and great acting. The rest of the team was solid and ok for me, and I have to admit that I didn't like the ending, I didn't see any point, and maybe I should have.

Excellent Movie

[bozidar-capalija-906-224656 · 10/10 · 10 February 2021]

This excellent movie depicts the real horrors of the Homeland War and the cruel Srebian's crimes committed against the unarmed Croatian people of all ages.

A war movie without a soul or a sympathetic character.

[garuda4 · 6/10 · 16 March 2002]

Andy McDowell can't seem to portray sympathetic characters. In "Four weddings and a funeral" I wanted Hugh to dump her. In "Sex, lies and videotapes" I knew she was frigid before they told us. It has something to do with those intense brown eyes being too close together, and her pent up, whiny angst. Now she plays a woman so obsessed with finding her (given up for dead famous war correspondent) husband that she roars off to a war zone without a backward look at her children. She then allows her husband's fame to sucker 3 other reporters into acting as protectors and guides, and when one of them gets killed she watches silently as another reporter apologizes for the death. She doesn't have a clue that her irresponsibility is the root of his death. This is supposed to be a love story but how can one tolerate a love from a mother who never shows any concern for the consequences to her children and those around her? Who needs another soul-less war movie these days anyway. They have so ground into the dirt the images of hell that they appear dispassionate. The hell of war is the damage it does to the human soul not just the damage it does to the body. When you show only the latter you're showing off technique and side stepping creative bravery.

I've never seen any other movie like this before!

[zach__anderson · 8/10 · 3 February 2003]

I've never seen any other movie like this before! Granted, my exposure to movies where photojournalists are in the midst of war, it gave a stunning portrayal of how these levels of violence affect the people who take the pictures that we see in magazines.

If you want to read about the plot, then you should read the other comments about this film. However, if you want comments, then consider these: While the movie does have a love story plot (wife tries to find husband in war-torn Eastern Europe), the presentation of the war scenes within the movie are phenomenal, giving it a "Saving Private Ryan" feeling.

As Sara (the wife) and the photographers look for Harrison Lloyd, not only do you see how far a wife will go in order to find her husband, but you also witness just how far photojournalists will go in order to save their own.

And if you ask me, the "Hollywood Ending" was absolutely necessary in order to justify showing the rest of the grim war scenes throughout the movie (they can be disturbing, but they aren't gory). Had the movie ended any other way, I think that the majority of the viewers would feel extremely depressed after sitting through a two-hour movie.

Definitely a great movie! This is one that will get a lot of playtime in my DVD player.

Disjointed narrative disrupts truly remarkable war footage!

[ozjeppe · 6/10 · 19 February 2009]

Honorably ambitious drama of American war-photo journalist who goes on a last mission to civil war-erupting Yugoslavia in the early 1990s. Being allegedly killed in action, his wife refuses to believe it and decides to follow in his tracks, with a small group of war photographers in tow...

The bulk here is the truly remarkable staging and re-enaction of the horrors of the war on the Balkan that left me cringing heavily in its strongest parts. But disjointed narrative (especially those post-interviews) and unconvincing relations and circumstances - a sort of modern "Saving private Ryan"-ish setup, if you like - make its American-related input curiously uninvolving... Too bad - had all elements gelled, its classic status probably would have been secured. And not surprisingly, Adrien Brody steals the acting show as usual!

6 out of 10 from Ozjeppe

Works as a love story...

[kkahrs-1 · 5/10 · 12 September 2006]

This movie must be seen as a love story more than anything else, and it works as a love story. However, to get an accurate picture of the war between Yugoslavia and Croatia, Harrison's Flowers is not suited. Those familiar with the history of the former Yugoslavia know that war crimes took place in and around Vukovar, and in 1991-92, Serbian nationalist paramilitaries of Arkan were responsible for heinous crimes. However, the movie is very one-sided, and Serbians are presented as half-drunk criminal villains while Croatians get the image of brave freedom fighters. In fact, the vast majority of movies portray Serbians as the villains, but I would claim that Croatians are maybe even more nationalistic than the Serbs. Those who watch the movie should know that Croatians were also responsible for killing civilians, especially during Operation Storm in 1995.

I have gained operational experience myself as a war correspondent, and I know what is like to be under fire from mortars, artillery and snipers. Therefore I was very surprised to see how the reporters and photographers from the movie entered Vukovar wearing military camouflages trying to hide from snipers. I don't know any reporters who would do it like this because it makes you a legitimate target, and I doubt experienced reporters from Newsweek would do it like that. The goal of a journalist in a war area is to be seen. Yes, sometimes you have to avoid checkpoints to get to the other side, but to wear a military uniform is very, very stupid.

Now it has been a couple of days since I wrote my review, and there was another thing that bothered me in this movie. Sarah lands in the city of Graz in Austria making her way all through Croatia to get to Vukovar. If she really wanted to save her husband, it would have been a lot easier to get to Belgrade. From Belgrade there is only a two-hour drive to Vukovar, and the city was controlled by the Serbs at this point. I just spoke to a friend of mine who was an officer in Vukovar, and he said it would have been no problem for the character in the movie to get to Vukovar. Even if there were some paramilitaries present, the Yugoslav army, JNA, was in control.

Andie MacDowell in a warmovie ? Yes and one of the better warmovies you'll find !

[me_marco · 22 March 2002]

I doubt very many will ever get to see Harrison's flowers. This is really the most misleadingly titled movie i can recall. The title and the fact that it stars Andie MacDowell reaks cuddly romantic girl movie. Nothing could be farther from the truth !

Instead this movie turns out to be one of the better warmovies i've seen in recent years.

The story is actually similar to that of "saving private ryan" and it's portrayal of war as griping and realistic. Only this time we're not put into the shoes of soldiers storming up a bulletsprayed beach but in the shoes of the civilians that cover the wars: the photojournalists. And the heroics is not killing the enemy but simply to bring the world a glimpse of what goes on inside a the chaotic inferno that is a warzone.

Andie MacDowell plays Sarah Lloyd a suberban mother of two and voted "most unlikely to be found inside a warzone" in her highschool yearbook. When her husband "Harrison" (a roughneck newsweek warphotographer) goes missing in wartorn Croatia 1991. She basicly picks up a camera herself and goes over there to find him. Rather unbelievable but it works well to set up the real story.

A story which gets buried in rubble

[=G= · 6/10 · 7 February 2003]

"Harrison's Flowers" tells of the wife (MacDowell) of a renowned photo-journalist (Strathairn) who refuses to believe her husband was killed while on assignment in war ravaged Yugoslavia and travels through hell to find him. The film parses into a setup where we see what a loving family life the protag's have; a long stretch in the middle where MacDowell dodges bullets and bombs through Balkan countryside; and the wind-down/wrap-up at the end. The film shows the horrors of ethnic cleansing and the role of the wildcat photo-journalist on the front line of war reporting. However, MacDowell spends most of her time doing little more than running from pillar to post as the family drama wanders into and then back out of a war flick milieu. An okay watch for anyone who wants to revisit combat in the Balkans but a disappointment for those who are expecting a story about an estranged married couple. (B-)

MacDowell is a revelation in an excellent film

[EJverh · 8/10 · 1 March 2012]

There are very, very few films that had dared to tackle the controversial subject of wars in the former Yugoslavia and get it right. This is one of them, and done extremely well. Now, if your knowledge on the subject is limited, you may have a hard time following the politics of it. However, you shouldn't let that prevent you from viewing it; because in its core, it's actually a very basic and touching human story. It is surprisingly accurate, moving, harrowing, suspenseful and (dare I say) very entertaining. It's a work of fiction but actually based on some real and well documented incidents (the infamous, bloody invasion of Vukovar, Croatia, and the crimes committed by the Serbs against Croatian people during this time). The acting is excellent all around (Brody, Gleeson and Strathairn especially), but the real star of this film is the lovely Andie MacDowell. The actress (Four Weddings and a Funeral) who has, by some, on occasion been heavily criticized for her 'limited' acting abilities, in this film more than proves her worth. In a very difficult, dramatic role, Ms. MacDowell gives an Oscar-caliber performance that is both heartbreaking and very brave. You should check it out, even if you know nothing about this period of tragic Croatian history. See it for its remarkable story, tight editing, sweeping cinematography and superb performances by Andie MacDowell and Adrien Brody

A woman tries to find her husband in war-torn Yugoslavia

[blanche-2 · 7/10 · 30 August 2009]

"Harrison's Flowers" is about a photojournalist (David Strathairn) named Harrison Lloyd who is presumed dead when a building he was in collapses in Yugoslavia. His wife (Andie MacDowell), a journalist for Newsweek, believes that he is alive and goes to Yugoslavia to try and find him. She's not prepared for what she sees when she gets there.

This is a good movie about a heroic, determined woman, and what she has to endure to find her husband. The depiction of the warring factions and photojournalists is highly inaccurate, though the actual scenarios of death, bombings, and shootings are probably right for any war.

I didn't mind Andie MacDowell as much as some, presuming that any woman thrown into this kind of situation is going to experience some kind of traumatic shock - heavy emoting would probably be inappropriate. Nevertheless, she doesn't have much presence. Adrien Brody is excellent as Kyle, and David Strathairn is wonderful as Harrison. The flowers analogy is quite moving - Harrison is depicted as a gentle man who has a greenhouse, and in his absence, their son works in it. The flowers become a symbol of hope.

With some research for accuracy and the casting of a stronger actress, someone like Michelle Pfeiffer, perhaps, this film could have been much better.

A mixed bag, but worth your while

[surreyhill · 8/10 · 29 April 2003]

This movie is simply made for watching on video or DVD. Here's the plan--the first time through, watch all of it. But on subsequent viewings, just watch the stuff that happens in Yugoslavia.

Except for the men's room scene after the Awards Banquet.

This movie is really, really frustrating to watch because you can't help but feel that the directors and other creative parties associated with the actual film were very dedicated to telling the story of the journalists and photographers who were trying to bring the truth of what was happening in the early days of the ethnic cleansing in the former Yugoslavia to the screen. They were fascinated by the people who would willingly risk their lives to obtain images of the horrors and atrocities being carried out to the rest of the world, and what motivated them--made them tick. And they were enamoured of the character of Kyle Morris, as portrayed by Adrien Brody, and wished to showcase him in some way in order to drive the point home--that people like him were brave and admirable, no matter what their personal demons and failings.

Unfortunately for those of us who were hooked on this POV, they were also hamstrung, utterly, by the source material, which was a love story about a woman who would not believe her husband was dead, and whose dedication to finding him and whose devotion to him was convincing enough to cause persons such as are described in the preceding paragraph to risk life and limb to try to reunite this couple.

I don't want to use this space to snark. It's unseemly, given the seriousness of the subject matter. What I want to highlight is the way in which one of the performances affected me. The central figure of this movie from a standpoint of character arc is not Harrison, or his wife, Sarah, but Kyle Morris. We first see Kyle at a Pulitzer Awards dinner, where a grief-stricken, coke-addled Kyle Morris goes off on the Harrison Lloyd character. It's a show-stopper, and drenches everything else that happens in Yugoslavia with layers and layers of bitter irony.

The great stuff in this is movie is all about Adrien Brody's character Kyle Morris. This is probably the sort of character that a young actor just dreams of getting his teeth into. Kyle is one of those bundles of contradictions and contrasts that fascinates endlessly. He is an angry, foul-mouthed swaggerer with the gentle hands and soul of a poet, and a kind heart too easily touched. He is a drug user, which is usually portrayed as a character defect which goes along with being weak or afraid to face reality, but in his case, it is probably more a result of his trying to cope with having too MUCH courage and desire to walk into the bowels of real-life hells, like war-torn Yugoslavia. He is both cocksure and certain, and insecure, terrified he will never get recognized for what he is doing in trying to record the truth. He takes rebellious pride in being an outsider, but he churns with jealous resentment against those who seem to have "made it". This character is BRAVE, quick, resourceful, clever, with a crackling energy that suffuses every line, every expression, every move he makes. Brody brings a wild animal's instinctive quickness and 360 degree awareness of the environment to the role; you can almost see his large but sensitive nostrils quiver as he tests the wind for the scent of danger, and the way to safety. If I were going deep into the heart of the battle zone with nothing more than a camera bag and a sense of purpose, I would want no one else to take me there. When he wraps his arm around Sarah, and tells her to move, she obeys. I would, too. He seems to be tapped in to the undercurrents that flow beneath the reality that they see and hear around them, and sense shifts in the flow and direction that the others cannot, and acts on a combination of instinct and intelligence to get Sarah into a city which has become a charnel house where no badge or profession is respected or spared from the snipers and the bayonets.

I was fascinated by this character. It was the sort of portrayal that made one want to know more--what drives someone like that? What was his childhood like? Why did he risk all for someone like Sarah?

Unfortunately, this portrayal and character threw the whole film off-balance, and made the putative heroine seem self-absorbed and unlikable in the end.

I recommend this movie for the brilliant footage of the journalists and Sarah working their way through war-torn Yugoslavia, for the harrowing urban combat scenes, and for Brody's performance.

I can't, however, give it more than 8 stars, since it committed the primary infraction of rendering its heroine unlikable in certain ways, without redemption or the change brought about by a true character arc.

Also, Harrison and Sarah's son was sort of creepy. Sorry, but there it is.

Dramatic

[ctomvelu-1 · 7/10 · 16 May 2009]

A wife searches for her photojournalist husband in war-torn Yugoslavia. She has the help of some other journalists who had left her husband for dead. We see the Serbian army killing anyone and everyone in its path, and even the destruction of a hospital. I guessed the movie must have been filmed in the Czech Republic, and I was right. Sad to say, some of the scenes probably did not need much "dressing" to suggest the utter destruction wrought by the blood-mad Serbs. Andie MacDowell is the determined wife and David Strathairn is the missing husband. They are supported in their efforts by gifted actors like Elias Koteas, Adrian Brody and Brendan Gleason. Based on a book, this is a compelling love story using modern war as a backdrop.

Realistic and not for the faint of heart

[philip_vanderveken · 8/10 · 16 August 2005]

I don't know what it is that made me decide to give this movie a try. All I knew was that this was some kind of war movie from an unknown French director, with Andie MacDowell - not exactly my most favorite actress - and Adrien Brody - who was excellent in "The Pianist", but who I didn't see play in any other movie since. Those aren't exactly strong reasons why I shouldn't miss it and yet I was willing to give it a try, probably because I hoped to be surprised by it. And that's exactly what it did.

Harrison Lloyd is a photojournalist who has already won a Pulitzer price with his photographs of several wars. But he now has a wife and two children and he doesn't want to go to another war-zone anymore, because he is afraid that he might die while doing his job. He wants to change jobs, but his boss has given him one last assignment. He'll have to travel to ex-Yugoslavia, where the civil war has just started. What appears to be a small incident at first, quickly proves to be one of the most gruesome wars in recent history and it doesn't take long before Harrison is missing, presumably dead. But his wife Sarah refuses to believe that he's no longer alive and decides to go after him and to look for him. As she penetrates deeper into the war zone, she is confronted with all the horrors that were committed in this war: random executions of soldiers and civilians, rape, snipers, the uncertainty of where and who the enemy is,...

At first I must say that I didn't like this movie all too much. This seemed to be like yet another Hollywood product about a perfect and happy family who is all a sudden thorn apart by some unfortunate event, who learns to deal with the pain, building up a new life without the missing person and so on, and so on. Nothing new, nothing special. But then it all started to change... a lot. As soon as she is in ex-Yugoslavia, being confronted with all the horrors of that civil war, it was as if I was struck by lightening. Never have I seen so much realistic images in a movie about this war. This started to feel more like a documentary, rather than like a movie. It was all so incredibly realistic and I can't say that they have left anything out. Young children murdered and raped; soldiers and civilians, man and woman, old and young,... executed in front of your eyes; all the explosions and the attacks;... It seems like you're all witnessing it live, as if you are seeing it through the eyes and the lenses of the photojournalists yourself. It was incredible...

The performances in this movie are more than OK and Andie MacDowell was a pleasant surprise in this one, although I must say that I liked her performance a lot more once she was the journalist in ex-Yugoslavia. Before that I sometimes found her acting a bit too much and quite unrealistic (take for instance the several scenes in which she is constantly falling when she hears bad news). I didn't really have the feeling that the wife of a war photographer, who constantly lives with this kind of uncertainty, would act and react the way she did. But as I said before, I forgot about that as soon as she was in Europe. However, the best performances in my opinion were those of Adrien Brody - who was excellent as the drug using, alcohol abusing and cynical Kyle Morris - and Brendan Gleeson as Marc Stevenson.

In the end this is a very fine movie about the Yugoslavian civil war. It's too bad that the first part of the movie didn't convince me all that much, because in my opinion it wasn't all that strong, but overall I really liked what I saw. That's why I give this movie a well-deserved 7.5/10.

could be better

[SnoopyStyle · 6/10 · 11 September 2016]

Sarah Lloyd (Andie MacDowell) is a Newsweek journalist. Her husband Harrison Lloyd (David Strathairn) is a renown war photographer. He is conflicted about leaving his family for another war zone. He gets challenged by rival Kyle Morris (Adrien Brody) to go cover the simmering strife in Yugoslavia. Harrison goes there and is reported killed in a collapsed building. His body is not recovered and Sarah refuses to accept the report. There is a phone call from someone after Harrison's death but she couldn't hear the voice. The conflict heats up as Serbian troops move into Croatia and she heads for the center Vukovar. She is almost raped during a harrowing skirmish. She is found by reporters led by Marc Stevenson (Brendan Gleeson). Kyle is also there. He was the one who made the phone call but is reluctant to tell her.

There is compelling action about a compelling conflict. Despite the harrowing subject, it doesn't come off as gritty. It almost has an action adventure vibe. The reporters are walking around in the chaotic massacres and it doesn't feel as intense as it should be. The flashforwards don't help since they show some of the characters alive after the fact. It's also true that Andie MacDowell lacks the gravitas to do serious gritty work. This could have been better.

Great acting and cinematography, but a implausible story

[drsecond · 8/10 · 18 March 2002]

I'm really torn about this one. On one hand, the performances by Andie MacDowell and Adrian Brody are very good, maybe even Oscar quality, and the cinematography is truly excellent, capturing the horror that was Yugoslavia. Unfortunately, the story line is really kind of ridiculous. First, is there ANY mother that would intentionally orphan her children to go to a warzone looking for a likely dead husband? Second, it is VERY unlikely that anyone as naive as she is could make it through to Vodrosnik, regardless of who was helping. Third, the opening scenes in New York/New Jersey are not very watchable, with most of the actors trying too hard. It has a "Lifetime movie" feel to it. Once the film gets to Europe, however, a different sensibility takes over and it becomes riveting cinema, if you can suspend your disbelief of the general concept. Overall, I thought it as a good, but not great movie, certainly worth the price of admission if you can get by the premise. I give it an 8/10.

Spectacular, spellbinding

[tmieczkowski · 7/10 · 25 March 2003]

Excellent acting talents adjoin this film that is reminiscent of "Proof of Life", but a hell of a lot better. Andie MacDowell gives IMHO the strongest dramatic performance of her life as a woman stretched to her limits hunting for the love of her life in war-torn Eastern Europe. Classic scenes, excellent special effects, a great war movie for those who can take the brutality and can accept its message.

Embarrassing on every front

[vivesi-1 · 2/10 · 26 February 2003]

Harrison's Flowers is one of the most remarkably bad films to date. The Balkan Conflict is treated like an unfortunate backdrop for a much more "important" yuppie love story. The film is shameless in this regard, allowing MacDowell to blather through 3/4 of the movie while there's this inconvenient war thingy going on. The makers of this embarrassment should be helicoptered in dropped off in the middle of a civil war after this misguided Lifetime movie.

Also, and I checked her filmography to make sure that I was right, MacDowell's pinnacle performance occurred in Groundhog Day. She has consistently proven her inability to pull off even the simplest of dramatic performances. It is, at times, excruciating to watch her fail. MacDowell has been tolerated because she's easy on the eyes, and, like Julia Roberts, she just seems like a nice person gosh darnit. Hardly reasons to cast her in dramas ever, ever again.