Harrison's Flowers

3/4

Starring: Andie MacDowell, Brendan Gleeson, Adrien Brody, Elias Koteas, David Strathairn

Rated R for Strong War Violence and Gruesome Images, Pervasive Language and Some Drug Use

For a movie with an $8 million budget, "Harrison's Flowers" certainly looks like it was made for ten times that amount.  The amount of verisimilitude in this film is striking, and gives this film much of its brutal punch.  Indeed, there are many scenes that recall "Saving Private Ryan" at its most intense.

Sarah Lloyd (Andie MacDowell) is the loving wife of Pulitzer-Prize winning photographer Harrison Lloyd (David Strathairn).  Harrison is frequently out of the country, which leads to fractured relationships with his family (particularly his son), so Harrison wants out.  Just before he retires, he's sent into Yugoslavia at the start of the civil war, believing he's going to be home in a week.  Then Sarah gets word that he's been killed in action.  She doesn't believe it, and sets out to find him…or die trying.

Elie Chouraqui's film has a lot going for it.  The performances are universally strong, the story is involving and there is a "you are there" approach to the proceedings without the director having to resort to shaking the camera…ever!  The problem is that there are times when we feel as if Chouraqui is preaching about the horrors of war (Koteas' voiceover towards the end of the film is an example of this).  Although not as painful as a Greenpeace infomercial, there are moments where it feels similar.

That's a shame, because the film is strong enough to stand on its own.  This is a grim and bleak motion picture.  Hell was coined for the scenes shown in this film.  Although Chouraqui occasionally overplays his hand and shows a lot more evidence of death and destruction necessary to make his point, the impact of this film is undeniable.

The performances are terrific.  Andie MacDowell is traditionally known for her light comedies, such as "Groundhog Day" and "Multiplicity," but this is her first foray into heavy drama that I have seen (I haven't seen "sex, lies and videotape" but it's in my NetFlix queue, I swear!).  Although she's not an especially adept at non-vocal communication, she is at delivering dialogue convincingly, and that's what's needed here.  Adrien Brody gives another standout performance as Kyle, a photographer who helps her on her journey after he realizes that she's going with or without him.  Brendan Gleeson is also on hand as another photographer suffering from PTSD, and Canadian character actor Elias Koteas finally gets a role that's more than a bit part.  David Strathairn is also good, but his role is minimal (although the chemistry between him and MacDowell is good enough that it provides an emotional anchor that the film needs).

Apart from its tendency towards preaching, the script is uneven.  It gives light to the life of a photojournalist in a war zone (think "soldier with no guns"), which is fascinating.  But character development is spotty, and there are times when characters change for the sake of moving the story along.  The actors pick up the slack, however, which smoothes over the narrative hiccups.

The more I think about it, the bigger the problems seem to be, but that happens with a lot of movies.  The bottom line is that for all its flaws, the film is consistently engaging, and it contains moments of true power.  Not many movies can make that claim.