Even today, with Slobodan Milosevic awaiting trial for crimes against humanity, most U.S. citizens understand neither the extent nor the gravity of the atrocities committed in the former Yugoslavia during the bloody revolution that turned a country into a charnel house. One reason for the apparent apathy is a lack of understanding - brief, horrific images on CNN are not conducive to grasping a situation of social, cultural, and political upheaval. An even greater consideration is distance. Yugoslavia is half a world away, and, to many people, as remote as Mars. This wasn't a bloodbath happening in our backyard. September 11, 2001 showed how this country can react to a threat that is close and immediate. Such was not the case in the brutal conflict between the Serbs and Croats.

Harrison's Flowers personalizes the war for one New Jersey couple. The year is 1991. Harrison Lloyd (David Strathairn) is an award-winning Newsday photojournalist who has decided to retire in order to spend more time with his wife, Sarah (Andie MacDowell), and their two children. His editor (Alun Armstrong) convinces him to stay on in the short term until a replacement can be found. Harrison's agreement has dire consequences. His next assignment takes him to Yugoslavia, where the civil unrest is turning ugly. There, Harrison disappears and is presumed dead. But, because there is no body, Sarah will not accept that he is gone. So, alone and equipped with only a camera, she heads for the epicenter of the conflict - Vukovar - and quickly learns firsthand how war can turn human beings into rabid beasts.

At its heart, Harrison's Flowers is a love story, albeit a graphic and difficult one. It shows the lengths to which a woman will go when presented with the slimmest of hope that her husband might still be alive. As a character observes, "If we could all be so lucky to have a woman love us that much." Sarah's journey into Yugoslavia's heart of darkness changes many things about her, not the least of which is her view of human nature, but it never shakes the core of her being. She places Harrison above her children and herself - finding him becomes central to her existence. If he has died in Vukovar, she will meet her end there as well.

Although her journey starts out as a solo endeavor, she is eventually joined by three other journalists, all of whom knew Harrison: Americans Kyle (Adrien Brody) and Yeager (Elias Koteas), and Brit Stevenson (Brendan Gleeson). Hardened as these men are by things they have witnessed during previous assignments, nothing prepares them for the barbarity they experience as they gain firsthand knowledge of what is meant by the term "ethnic cleansing". Writer/director Elie Chouraqui gives us a series of memorable, harrowing visual cues, none of which is more disturbing that the shot of a dead girl, shot through the head, with dried blood caking her inner thighs - evidence of what was done to her before the coup de grace was administered. Chouraqui does not dwell on such images - merely showing them is enough.

From a narrative standpoint, the film weakens during its final third. The pace becomes rushed, and the carefully developed sense of tension erodes. It's also around this point that a voiceover is introduced. Not having been used during the early acts of the film, its inclusion is jarring and out-of-place (even though some of the information it provides is interesting). Finally, while the ending brings a welcome sense of closure, I'm not sure that the movie earns its final scene. Chouraqui seems to be cheating at this point in order to provide a specific kind of conclusion.

Like Michael Winterbottom's Welcome to Sarajevo, Harrison's Flowers attacks the wars in the former Yugoslavia from the perspective of outsiders. Films made about this part of the world during this time period generally take one of two approaches: drama heavily laced with black comedy and gallows humor (Pretty Village, Pretty Flame; Welcome to Sarajevo; No Man's Land) or straightforward tragedy (Vukovar). Harrison's Flowers falls into the latter category. There's nothing even vaguely satirical or ironic about this story.

Despite having an English-speaking cast and several recognizable American stars, Harrison's Flowers was made with French money for a European audience. The movie opened in France more than a year ago. Current events, however, have given this film a new relevance, and that may generate some interest at the box office (although this is not seen as having mainstream appeal).Harrison's Flowers offers a glimpse of what happened in 1991 as Milosevic bulldozed his way into power over the corpses of his enemies, while sounding a cautionary note that, in today's shrinking world, no conflict is so distant that its ripples cannot be felt in our homes. 

© 2002 James Berardinelli