''Harrison's Flowers'' () is a 2000 war-romance drama film directed by

Elie Chouraqui Elie may refer to: People * Elie (given name) * Elie (surname) Places * Elie, Fife, a village in Scotland, now part of the town of Elie and Earlsferry * Elie, Manitoba, Canada ** Elie, Manitoba tornado See also * Elie Hall, Grenada * Elie Hous ...

. It stars, among others, Andie MacDowell,

Elias Koteas Elias Koteas (; ; born March 11, 1961) is a Canadian actor who has performed in lead and supporting roles in numerous films and television series. He won the Canadian Screen Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in the film '' Ararat'' (20 ...

Brendan Gleeson Brendan Gleeson (born 29 March 1955) is an Irish actor. He has received various accolades, including a Primetime Emmy Award, two British Independent Film Awards and three IFTA Awards, along with nominations for an Academy Award, three BAFTA Aw ...

Adrien Brody Adrien Nicholas Brody (born April 14, 1973) is an American actor. He won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of Polish pianist Władysław Szpilman in Roman Polanski's war drama '' The Pianist'' (2002) becoming the youngest acto ...

Marie Trintignant Marie Trintignant (; 21 January 1962 – 1 August 2003) was a French film and stage actress. She appeared in over 30 movies during her 36-year career. Her family was deeply involved in France's film industry, as her father was an actor and her mo ...

Gerard Butler Gerard James Butler (born 13 November 1969) is a Scottish actor and film producer. After studying law, he turned to acting in the mid-1990s with small roles in productions such as '' Mrs Brown'' (1997), the James Bond film ''Tomorrow Never ...

and

David Strathairn David Russell Strathairn (; born January 26, 1949) is an American actor. Known for his leading roles on stage and screen, he has often portrayed historical figures such as Edward R. Murrow, J. Robert Oppenheimer, William H. Seward, and John D ...

. The film is also Quinn Shephard's big screen debut. The film premiered at the 2000

San Sebastián International Film Festival The San Sebastián International Film Festival ( SSIFF; , ) is an annual FIAPF A category film festival held in the Spain, Spanish city of Donostia, Donostia-San Sebastián in September, in the Basque Country (autonomous community), Basque Countr ...

, and released in theatres on 24 January 2001 in France.

Universal Pictures Universal City Studios LLC, doing business as Universal Pictures (also known as Universal Studios or simply Universal), is an American filmmaking, film production and film distribution, distribution company headquartered at the 10 Universal Ci ...

gave the film a

limited theatrical release __FORCETOC__ Limited theatrical release is a film distribution strategy of releasing a new film in a few cinemas across a country, typically art house theaters in major metropolitan markets. Since 1994, a limited theatrical release in the Unite ...

in the United States on 15 March 2002, then

Lionsgate Lions Gate, Lion Gate or similar terms may refer to: Gates *Lion Gate at Mycenae in Greece *Lion Gate, one of the entrances to the ancient Hittite city of Hattusa, now in Turkey *Lion Gate, one of the entrances to the gardens of Hampton Court Pala ...

released this film in the United States on DVD in 2007. For this film's United States version, the film's length was reduced by about 5 minutes; it also features a new score by

Cliff Eidelman Clifford Glen Eidelman (born December 5, 1964) is an American composer and conductor who has scored films including '' Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country'', '' Free Willy 3: The Rescue'', and '' Christopher Columbus: The Discovery''. Caree ...

. The film only grossed $3 million in worldwide box office against $8 million production budget, and the overall critical reaction to the film was mixed. However, Adrien Brody said that this film helped him to be cast in the leading role of '' The Pianist'' (2002), for which he won the

Academy Award for Best Actor The Academy Award for Best Actor is an award presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). It has been awarded since the 1st Academy Awards to an actor who has delivered an outstanding performance in a leading ...

. Kino Lorber Studio Classics released the film for the first time on

Blu-ray Blu-ray (Blu-ray Disc or BD) is a digital optical disc data storage format designed to supersede the DVD format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released worldwide on June 20, 2006, capable of storing several hours of high-defin ...

on November 26, 2024. There is a factual error in this film: the character played by Adrien Brody says that Croats are Orthodox and Serbs are Catholic, without being contradicted.

Plot

Harrison Lloyd, a

Pulitzer Prize The Pulitzer Prizes () are 23 annual awards given by Columbia University in New York City for achievements in the United States in "journalism, arts and letters". They were established in 1917 by the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made his fo ...

-winning ''

Newsweek ''Newsweek'' is an American weekly news magazine based in New York City. Founded as a weekly print magazine in 1933, it was widely distributed during the 20th century and has had many notable editors-in-chief. It is currently co-owned by Dev P ...

'' photojournalist, travels on his last assignment to the dissolving Yugoslavia in 1991, during the

Croatian War of Independence The Croatian War of Independence) and (rarely) "War in Krajina" ( sr-Cyrl-Latn, Рат у Крајини, Rat u Krajini) are used. was an armed conflict fought in Croatia from 1991 to 1995 between Croats, Croat forces loyal to the Governmen ...

. While there, he is presumed to have been killed in a building collapse. His wife Sarah travels to the region to find him, believing him to be in the city of

Vukovar Vukovar (; sr-Cyrl, Вуковар, , ) is a city in Croatia, in the eastern Regions of Croatia, regions of Syrmia and Slavonia. It contains Croatia's largest river port, located at the confluence of the Vuka (river), Vuka and the Danube. Vukova ...

. Travelling through the war-torn landscape, she arrives in the city, and bears witness to the massacre which took place there. Back home, Harrison's son Cesar cares for his father's flowers in their greenhouse.

Cast

Reception

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

, the film has a 49% approval rating from 87 critics. The website's consensus says: "Though it presents the war in shockingly gritty, realistic terms, Harrison's Flowers uses such scenes as background for a trite love story. "

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, which assigns a normalized rating, calculated an average score of 49 out of 100, based on 31 reviews.

Notes

References

External links

* * {{Mojo title, harrisonsflowers 2000 films 2000s war romance films 2000s war drama films Films set in 1991 Films about war correspondents 2000s French-language films 2000s Croatian-language films StudioCanal films Universal Pictures films French war drama films French war romance films Films about the Battle of Vukovar Films scored by Cliff Eidelman Films shot in the Czech Republic Films directed by Élie Chouraqui Vukovar 2000 drama films Films scored by Bruno Coulais 2000s English-language films 2000s French films 2000 multilingual films French-language war drama films English-language war drama films Serbian-language war drama films Croatian-language war drama films English-language war romance films