Harrison's Flowers

Harrison's Flowers is a terrible title for a war movie, but it is ironically indicative of the kind of clumsy narrative missteps that plague what is an otherwise gripping, realistic depiction of the horrors of war in Yugoslavia circa 1991. In fact, the film's traumatic, up-close, guerilla warfare scenes trump the battle-scarred authenticity of slicker recent combat flicks such as Black Hawk Down and We Were Soldiers, but its melodramatic plot contrivances, storytelling blunders and continuity gaffes are simply too obtrusive to ignore. Andie MacDowell stars as an American wife exposed to the horrors of war when she travels to Croatia determined to find her missing and presumed dead Newsweek photographer husband. Unfortunately, MacDowell's character is too naive to be believed, hackneyed ironic foreshadowing abounds, and pointless and distracting narration begins three-quarters of the way through the story--all of which is a shame because Harrison's Flowers is fundamentally a powerful war story with strong performances, including those by Adrien Brody, Brendan Gleeson and Elias Koteas as war correspondents. Not a necessary purchase. (R. Blackwelder)