Opening

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Harrison's Flowers (2000)

tomatometer

49

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.

45

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.

audience

73

liked it
Average Rating: 3.6/5
User Ratings: 4,703

My Rating

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

Jan 21, 2003

$1.6M

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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.

June 5, 2008 Full Review Source: Variety
Variety
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The movie too often works against itself, pitting an increasingly implausible story with Chouraqui's hard-core realism.

August 9, 2002
Denver Rocky Mountain News
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A powerhouse of a film about modern journalism and war.

July 20, 2002 Full Review Source: Chicago Tribune
Chicago Tribune
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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?

March 15, 2002
Rolling Stone
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It's part travelogue in Hell, part ineffectual weepie.

March 15, 2002
Washington Post
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It's the unsettling images of a war-ravaged land that prove more potent and riveting than the unlikely story of Sarah and Harrison.

March 15, 2002 Full Review Source: USA Today
USA Today
Top Critic IconTop Critic

The film presents an intense dose of reality -- too intense for some, maybe -- and it leaves us with a bitter aftertaste.

November 19, 2008 Full Review Source: Flick Filosopher
Flick Filosopher

While a previous European DVD release of Harrison's Flowers included a bunch of special features, Lions Gate's 2007 release comes with none.

July 11, 2007 Full Review Source: Apollo Guide
Apollo Guide

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.

July 11, 2007 Full Review Source: Apollo Guide
Apollo Guide

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.

October 30, 2006 Full Review Source: EmanuelLevy.Com
EmanuelLevy.Com

When describing an Andie MacDowell movie, the words "gritty" and "harrowing" do not immediately spring to mind.

November 9, 2003 Full Review Source: Reel Film Reviews
Reel Film Reviews

Acutely shows the pain and horror war inflicts on regular people.

October 3, 2003 Full Review
Northwest Herald (Crystal Lake, IL)

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.

May 27, 2003 Full Review Source: Entertainment Today
Entertainment Today

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.

May 20, 2003
Palo Alto Weekly

...overly melodramatic...

January 30, 2003 Full Review Source: Ozus' World Movie Reviews
Ozus' World Movie Reviews

Visceral, unrelenting, affecting and, as often, exasperating.

January 20, 2003 Full Review Source: L.A. Weekly
L.A. Weekly

Utterly predictable and idiotically scripted by writer/director Elie Chouraqui.

October 21, 2002 Full Review Source: San Diego Metropolitan
San Diego Metropolitan

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.

October 15, 2002 Full Review Source: Cincinnati Enquirer
Cincinnati Enquirer

This story of a determined woman's courage to find her husband in a war zone offers winning performances and some effecting moments.

August 27, 2002 Full Review Source: Urban Cinefile
Urban Cinefile

This is a good movie in spurts, but when it doesn't work, it's at important times.

June 28, 2002 Full Review Source: Supercala.com
Supercala.com

The images and performances are gripping enough to override the melodramatic missteps.

April 9, 2002 Full Review Source: TheMovieReport.com
TheMovieReport.com

Audience Reviews for Harrison's Flowers

A worth subject but ultimately dull. Andie MacDowell is out of her depth.
January 24, 2010
John Ballantine

Super Reviewer

"Harrison's Flowers", with a story plot basically revolving around the early 1990s Yugoslavian war and the search of a photojournalist lost in its midst by his wife, delivers a sufficiently grasping performance. All this despite the cast being not so famous.
June 22, 2012
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