War Flowers

Not one of these people could act their way out of a paper bag!! This movie is simply awful. I couldn't make it through to the end.

During the second half of the Civil War, a mother (Christina Ricci) and her precocious daughter await the return of their husband/father at their farmhouse in North Carolina. Meanwhile they have to fend with a local ne'erdowell, skirmishes, a questionable Confederate patrol and a wounded Union soldier found in their basement (Jason Gedrick). Tom Berenger has a peripheral role as a Union general.

Written & directed by Serge Rodnunsky, "War Flowers" (2012) is an Indie that some have criticized as having a student film vibe with some help from (very convincing) Civil War re-enacters. It's shot kinda stagily and edited using dissolves for many cuts. Meanwhile a few shots don't match each other colorwise.

These technical criticisms are valid due to an obvious low-budget, which reportedly cost $5 million with the bulk of it spent on the impressive cast and Civil War Reenactors, BUT the film does work on the most important level, that of storytelling. My wife & I saw it separately and we both enjoyed it: The story pulls you in and maintains your interest until the end with convincing acting by the principles. It's vital that a film like this have human interest (otherwise it's a lost cause) and it scores well in this area.

The movie runs 1 hour, 39 minutes, and was shot in Michigan.

GRADE: B-/B

This film is a combination of a war and a Hallmark movie. Some parts are somewhat accurate to the time such as some uniforms. Others were not hidden well. Or changed to draw in more people in. This film is about a wife/mother Sara Elizabeth, whose husband goes off to the civil war to fight. She waits for him at their house with her daughter Melody, of course there has to be drama so some battles break out near their house. A soldier is injured and goes to their cellar. They find him and care for him. As he stays he falls for Sara Elizabeth. She refuses to get involved with him even though she has feelings for him, to stay true to her husband. After healing he goes home. There is more drama and surprises but that would spoil the movie.

The story was good and I feel they tried to do it justice but the acting was poor. The little girl was terrible. Being a born and bred Southerner the fake accents made me cringe but that doesn't stop me from watching Southern themed movies. This just lacked everything: good acting, good directing and emotion equal to the plot. The only redeeming quality is that there is nothing offensive in the move other than the typical violence of Civil War action and it was not particularly graphic-- no bad language, no sex scenes nor nudity. I would love to see this story done by good actors and maybe better directing. I don't recommend it unless you are bored to death and need something to pass 98 minutes of your time.

This film tells the story of a young woman and her daughter living in a farm house, waiting for the man of the house to return from the civil war.

I am rather surprised by how bad "War Flowers" is. The opening battle scene is supposed to be impressive, but it gives me the impression that it is a bad made for TV movie. The story is slow and quite uneventful, maybe it is because they are in a very small town where nothing happens. Then, an enemy soldier arrives and turns things upside down. The romance is so unbelievable and poorly built up, that I find it ridiculous that they would fall for each other. Another poorly constructed storyline is the daughter talking about how the father would come back. And another annoying thing is that people talk so slowly in the film that it doesn't even sound realistic. Poor Christina Ricci, she has starred in more than her fair share of bad movies in recent years. I hope her next film will be better!