Harrison’s Flowers (Lionsgate)

 

Picture: C+     Sound: C+     Extras: D     Film: B-

 

 

David Strathairn is Harrison, a man with a great wife (Annie MacDowell) and children, supporting them as an in the field reporter.  But when he seems to have been killed in the civil war that tore up Yugoslavia, she is not so sure he is dead and travels there herself for proof or his death in Elie Chouraqui’s 2000 drama Harrison’s Flowers.

 

Yes, this gets melodramatic, but the intent was to show how ugly the genocide was at the time and how no one was dong anything to stop it.  Her trip stretches credibility, but there are enough brutal and realistic moments that the film remains interesting and bold enough to keep watching.  This features an early performance by Adrien Brody before he became a big star and also boasts solid supporting work by Elias Koteas, Brendan Gleeson, Diane Baker, Caroline Goodall and a then-unknown Gerard Butler, another reason for having this film back in print.

 

Sadly, the definitive film on the ugly “ethnic cleansing” has yet to be made and too many do not know enough about what happened.  In this respect, Harrison’s Flowers still has the power to surprise and even shock.

 

The anamorphically enhanced 2.35 X 1 image was shot in Super 35mm format by Nicola Pecorini (Rules Of Engagement, Tideland), but the weak Video White suggests an old analog transfer.  The sound is also at least second generation, here in a weak Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono mix when the film was a DTS and Dolby theatrical release!  There are no extras.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo