Harrison's Flowers (2000)

User Rating:

7.2/10   

Director:

Elie Chouraqui

Writers:

Isabel Ellsen (book)
Elie Chouraqui (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

24 January 2001 (France)

Genre:

Drama | Romance | War

Tagline:

Sometimes love is the only proof you need.

Plot:

When a Newsweek photojournalist disappears in war-torn Yugoslavia, his wife travels to Europe to find him.

Plot Keywords:

Yugoslavia | Greenhouse | Search For Spouse | Hospital | New York

Awards:

3 wins & 1 nomination

Cast

Andie MacDowell	...	Sarah Lloyd
Elias Koteas	...	Yeager Pollack
Brendan Gleeson	...	Marc Stevenson
Adrien Brody	...	Kyle Morris
David Strathairn	...	Harrison Lloyd
Alun Armstrong	...	Samuel Brubeck
Caroline Goodall	...	Johanna Pollack
Diane Baker	...	Mary Francis
Quinn Shephard	...	Margaux Lloyd
Marie Trintignant	...	Cathy
Christian Charmetant	...	Jeff
Gerard Butler	...	Chris Kumac, photojournalist
Scott Anton	...	Cesar Lloyd (as Scott Michael Anton)
Christopher Clarke	...	David
Dragan Antonic	...	Chetnik

Also Known As:

Les fleurs d'Harrison (France) (subtitle)

MPAA:

Rated R for strong war violence and gruesome images, pervasive language and brief drug use.

Runtime:

130 min | USA:121 min

Country:

France

Language:

English | French | Serbian

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Finland:K-15 | Iceland:16 | Australia:MA (cable rating) | Canada:14A | France:U | Ireland:15 | Netherlands:16 | Spain:13 | Sweden:15 | Switzerland:16 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:16 (canton of Vaud) | UK:15 | USA:R

Filming Locations:

Czech Republic

Company:

7 Films Cinéma

Goofs:

Anachronisms: An advertisement for Windows 2000 can be seen in the window of a computer store as Sarah leaves an office building in New York in 1991.

Quotes:

Marc Stevenson: I saw snipers shooting kids, and then making checkmarks on the wall.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Film Geek (2005)

A Journey into the Journalist's Personal Hell

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.