Movie Reviews

Flower & Garnet is an uncomfortable story about a disfunctional family struggling to understand each other in the wake of a series of tragedies and changes. The film starts with the birth of a boy named Garnet, and the death of his mother (whom we never see). The father is obviously distraught, and asks some relatives to look after the baby. One day, however, Garnet's older sister Flower carries him home from the relative's house, and at this very young age, begins to act as something of a surrogate mother to him.

The film then flashes forward about eight years. We see that the family is not particularly well-off, and the father doesn't seem very interested in doing much about it. Garnet has become a wierd, shy little boy, and Flower has been the one raising him, pretty much all on her own. More trouble starts, though, when Flower becomes pregnant and decides to move out on her own. Garnet is left alone with his father, who doesn't seem to have a clue what to do with him.

There is some pretty nice stuff in the film. Despite being more than a bit of a deadbeat, the dad does make some effort to get to know his kid, and his results in one of the best scenes (the two of them go out fishing one day, despite never having been, let alone knowning how to operate a motor-boat). It was also cool that the film was shot and set in Cache Creek, British Columbia. That doesn't really affect the story at all, but it provides for some really nice scenery, and it's nice that B.C. wasn't being 'passed off' as somewhere in the U.S.

But the best way I can think of to describe the film is 'uncomfortable.' Dramatic tension is generally necessary in any movie, but Flower & Garnet seemed to have a slightly different, more uncomfortable kind of tension. Part of that is because it seemed as though all the characters in the film were so uncomfortably tense. Furthermore, there seemed to be barely any conversations that lasted more than two or three phrases, as everyone seemed to speak in short, controlled statements. I found it a little jarring.

The kid that played Garnet was really good, though. I hope he'll go on to do more.