Harrison's Flowers (2000)
Average Rating: 5.6/10
Reviews Counted: 86
Fresh: 42 | Rotten: 44
Though it presents the war in shockingly gritty, realistic terms, Harrison's Flowers uses such scenes as background for a trite love story.
Average Rating: 5.5/10
Critic Reviews: 29
Fresh: 13 | Rotten: 16
Though it presents the war in shockingly gritty, realistic terms, Harrison's Flowers uses such scenes as background for a trite love story.
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Average Rating: 3.6/5
User Ratings: 4,703
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Movie Info
French director Elie Chouraqui adapts the novel of the same name into this drama, that, although set in 1991, became tragically topical in the weeks before its release due to the murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl. Andie MacDowell stars as Sarah, a photo editor for Newsweek and the happily married wife of Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist Harrison Lloyd (David Strathairn). Harrison has been reconsidering his career of covering the world's war zone "hot spots" in order to
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Cast
-
Andie MacDowell
Sarah Lloyd -
David Strathairn
Harrison Lloyd -
Elias Koteas
Yeager Pollack -
Adrien Brody
Kyle Morris -
Brendan Gleeson
Marc Stevenson -
Alun Armstrong
Samuel Brubeck -
Caroline Goodall
Johanna Pollack -
Diane Baker
Mary Francis -
Gerard Butler
Chris Kumac -
Marie Trintignant
Cathy -
-
Christopher Clarke
David -
Kurt Cramer
CNN Journalist -
Bela Grushka
Nina Portnoy -
Michael Rogers
Canadian Cameraman -
Bruce Solomon
Rabbi -
Dale Wyatt
Mistress of Ceremony -
Slobodan Milovanovic
Base Commander -
Jessica Horvathova
HTV Interviewer -
Corey Johnson
Peter Francis -
Scott Michael Anton
Cesar Lloyd -
Dragan Antonic
Chetnik -
Marie-Beatrice Bernert
Austrian Woman -
Predrag Bjelac
Doctor in Vukovar -
Antony Boehm
Freddy -
Nicole Estabrooks
Journalist 4 -
Francis Simon
Layout Technician -
Milan Gargula
Katzman -
Rich Gold
Journalist 1 -
Amy Huck
Cybil -
Joel Kirby
Michael -
Rianne Kooiman
Newsweek Journalist -
Liliana Krstic
Old Woman -
Gregory Linington
Journalist 2 -
Mirko Medenica
Croatian Officer -
Deborah Michaels
Journalist 3 -
Sasa Nikolitch
Chtiomac -
Zivko Petrov
Nustar Peasant -
Dragan Radivojevic
Sniper -
Quinn Shepherd
Margaux Lloyd -
Joel Sugarman
Nelson
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All Critics (86) | Top Critics (29) | Fresh (42) | Rotten (45) | DVD (7)
Provides powerful drama thanks to its trenchant core story and harrowing re-creation of the brutal chaos of war.
Top CriticThe movie too often works against itself, pitting an increasingly implausible story with Chouraqui's hard-core realism.
A powerhouse of a film about modern journalism and war.
Director Elie Chouraqui, who co-wrote the script, catches the chaotic horror of war, but why bother if you're going to subjugate truth to the tear-jerking demands of soap opera?
It's part travelogue in Hell, part ineffectual weepie.
It's the unsettling images of a war-ravaged land that prove more potent and riveting than the unlikely story of Sarah and Harrison.
The film presents an intense dose of reality -- too intense for some, maybe -- and it leaves us with a bitter aftertaste.
While a previous European DVD release of Harrison's Flowers included a bunch of special features, Lions Gate's 2007 release comes with none.
Built on a foundation of melodrama and implausible coincidence, Harrison's Flowers is a movie that looks far better on paper than it does onscreen.
A stronger actress, say Michelle Pfeiffer or Cate Blanchette, would have given this political melodrama more credibility and power, but Andie MacDowell is poorly cast and she seems lost.
When describing an Andie MacDowell movie, the words "gritty" and "harrowing" do not immediately spring to mind.
Acutely shows the pain and horror war inflicts on regular people.
Lacking gravitas, MacDowell is a placeholder for grief, and ergo this sloppy drama is an empty vessel. Leave these Flowers unpicked -- they're dead on the vine.
Hope, desperation and the ugliness of ethnic cleansing intersect elegantly in director Elie Chouraqui's intense retelling of the 1991 Croatian-Serbian conflict in Yugoslavia.
...overly melodramatic...
Visceral, unrelenting, affecting and, as often, exasperating.
Utterly predictable and idiotically scripted by writer/director Elie Chouraqui.
Ultimately, Sarah's dedication to finding her husband seems more psychotic than romantic, and nothing in the movie makes a convincing case that one woman's broken heart outweighs all the loss we witness.
This story of a determined woman's courage to find her husband in a war zone offers winning performances and some effecting moments.
This is a good movie in spurts, but when it doesn't work, it's at important times.
The images and performances are gripping enough to override the melodramatic missteps.
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