Deep down, "Harrison's Flowers" fights to tell the story of a woman's desperate quest to restore a marriage torn apart by war. This film is not a war movie, although it could be said to pass as one. Honestly, "Harrison's Flowers" does not concern itself with the outcome of conflict, as do "Black Hawk Down" and "We Were Soldiers." Instead, it focuses more on the opposite of war - human love and emotion. And while perhaps the two elements of love and war seem combined at first, this film shows us something entirely new.
"Flowers" takes a subject often adapted to cinematic form - the genocide and hatred that rear their ugly heads in a bitter civil war - and uses them to create a fresh perspective. Taking place mostly in the former nation of Yugoslavia around 1991, the film carries a steady intensity. As each scene carries the weight of fact (despite the screenplay lying behind it), the ghastly images wake viewers up and force them to pay attention.
Although "Flowers" may mean more to people after the incident with Daniel Pearl - the Wall Street Journal reporter who was held hostage and murdered by his captors - one should not view this film as an attempt to capitalize on the tragedy. Universal Pictures released it last year in France, and this year its release just met with unfortunate timing.
"Flowers" begins with a happily married couple, Harrison Lloyd (David Strathairn) and his wife Sarah (Andie MacDowell). Harrison lives a charmed life as a Newsweek photographer - except for the guilt he feels from leaving his family behind. He tries to quit, but his ungrateful boss has him under contract. From the very beginning of the film, he's trapped.
At the Pulitzer ceremony, he bumps into Kyle Morris (Adrien Brody), a photographer from a rival newspaper who despises him for having "too good" of a life. Morris tries to make Lloyd feel guilty for not taking dangerous assignments - like a friend who was just murdered in Croatia. The guilt trip worked a little too well, and Harrison's next assignment is covering the Serbo-Croatian civil war.
Once in the war zone, Harrison disappears - both from his wife and from the viewers. We know only that he was in a house when it collapsed, and that somebody found his gear and mailed it home. Convinced that she has seen him alive in a video of news coverage, Sarah hops on a plane for war-torn Yugoslavia.
"Flowers" starts quite slowly, even painfully. The day after Harrison comes back from his prior assignment, everyone in the office teases Sarah about missing her husband (and his affections). This scene and others like it introduce the family as wholesome and cuddly in a rather predictable manner. The audience knows something bad is coming - they just don't know what.
Once Sarah arrives in Yugoslavia, things become more interesting. One minute finds her driving through a silent town. In the next her car is driven off the road by explosions, and she is surrounded by soldiers. As luck would have it, she runs into Kyle, the same reporter who laid a guilt trip on our hero.
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Kyle gives Sarah a camera and a press pass, but he warns her that Balkan soldiers (on either side it seems) lack respect for American reporters. Kyle feels guilty for encouraging Harrison to take a dangerous assignment, so he pledges his life and loyalty to help Sarah find her husband.
Because this film is so enjoyable, it's only afterward that viewers note its implausibility. The events and the photography presented are so shocking and realistic, viewers are able to forget how writer/director/producer Elie Chouraqui assembled them into a coherent whole. After all, the film won a French award for best screenplay.
Neither the acting nor the script dazzles us. MacDowell gives a stunning performance as Sarah, but in general, the movie could benefit from a stronger cast. The vast majority of the actors fail to convince viewers of their journey. The audience concludes that they stay alive by luck alone.
The audience does feel for Sarah as she confronts more and increasingly vile war atrocities. Considering the deluge of recent war movies, viewers can appreciate an action movie in which the hero feels helpless and acts on that. One has to appreciate the fact that Sarah never grabs a machine gun to mow down Serbian soldiers.
Rather, viewers are drawn to Sarah as she fights to maintain her purpose. In this war, everyone either kills or takes pictures of people who do. Ironically, Sarah is the only person who seems to have something worth fighting for, the love of her husband. And for that reason, she is the one who struggles the most.
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