blanche-2 "Harrison's Flowers" is about a photojournalist (David Strathairn) named Harrison Lloyd who is presumed dead when a building he was in collapses in Yugoslavia. His wife (Andie MacDowell), a journalist for Newsweek, believes that he is alive and goes to Yugoslavia to try and find him. She's not prepared for what she sees when she gets there.This is a good movie about a heroic, determined woman, and what she has to endure to find her husband. The depiction of the warring factions and photojournalists is highly inaccurate, though the actual scenarios of death, bombings, and shootings are probably right for any war.I didn't mind Andie MacDowell as much as some, presuming that any woman thrown into this kind of situation is going to experience some kind of traumatic shock - heavy emoting would probably be inappropriate. Nevertheless, she doesn't have much presence. Adrien Brody is excellent as Kyle, and David Strathairn is wonderful as Harrison. The flowers analogy is quite moving - Harrison is depicted as a gentle man who has a greenhouse, and in his absence, their son works in it. The flowers become a symbol of hope.With some research for accuracy and the casting of a stronger actress, someone like Michelle Pfeiffer, perhaps, this film could have been much better.

ctomvelu-1 A wife searches for her photojournalist husband in war-torn Yugoslavia. She has the help of some other journalists who had left her husband for dead. We see the Serbian army killing anyone and everyone in its path, and even the destruction of a hospital. I guessed the movie must have been filmed in the Czech Republic, and I was right. Sad to say, some of the scenes probably did not need much "dressing" to suggest the utter destruction wrought by the blood-mad Serbs. Andie MacDowell is the determined wife and David Strathairn is the missing husband. They are supported in their efforts by gifted actors like Elias Koteas, Adrian Brody and Brendan Gleason. Based on a book, this is a compelling love story using modern war as a backdrop.

lastliberal I gave up some sleep time last night to catch an old film that looked really interesting - Harrison's Flowers with Andie Macdowell (Four Weddings and a Funeral) and David Strathairn (Good Night, and Good Luck.). It was a very romantic, if incredibly unrealistic, film about a woman who travels to Bosnia in the middle of the war to find her husband, whom she refuses to believe is dead. It was the graphic and tense depiction of the war and the ethnic cleansing that went on during that war that was so captivating. I have not seen such realistic war footage since Saving Private Ryan. Fortunately, they left out the blood and gore, but they could not leave out the terrible toll that this war and all wars take.

Lucile Dudevante If you are watching this movie to watch one or another of the cast members, or because you want to watch a war movie, or because you want to see the story of a woman tragically trying to rescue her husband, you'll have to change your expectations when watching this film: I know I had to. Andie MacDowell, David Strathairn, Brendan Gleeson, Adrien Brody, Elias Koteas, and all the rest of the cast, are marvelous, of course, and ultimately the way they threw themselves into their characters made the movie what it was--stunning."Harrison's Flowers" is not just a love story, a war movie, or a point-blank tragedy: neither is it simply an explanation of why photographers aren't as insane as we think. Certainly it contains elements of all those ideas. The incandescent relationship between Harrison and Sarah Lloyd is beautiful in its simplicity, though it is certainly not the main thrust behind the movie, as the title might suggest; war is obviously portrayed as bloody, destructive, and painful; the photographers/photojournalists focused on in the film are gorgeous characters, all with intense motivations and ideas. But "Harrison's Flowers" goes beyond any of that, becoming--I think--one of the best films ever made about a civilian's perspective towards war. Because it primarily concerns civilians, it doesn't follow along the lines of "Behind Enemy Lines" or "Saving Private Ryan" or even "The Thin Red Line", which all concern the soldier's perspectives: watching your comrades die, following orders or doing the right thing, living as a coward or dying heroically.... No. "Harrison's Flowers" has nothing to do with fighting for a cause, or with warrior-bonds between men, or even a statement against war. It is a beautiful, graphic, tragic explanation of why photographers and photojournalists do and should continue to do what they do: capture the world of war in Kodak, to remind us of it when it is gone, to remind us of destruction in times of peace, to remind us why war between men happens, to remind us of who really suffers during war--not just the soldiers, but the civilians, as well. The film's dedication (to the photographers and journalists who died in the former Yugoslavia between 1991 and 1995) reveals this further. If you're anything like me, after seeing this film you'll feel motivated to better the world and reveal evil, not matter if it means starving, freezing with fear, being wounded, and perhaps even dying--like the very, very human photographers and journalists in this film do.