Flower & Garnet (2002)

Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

Surprisingly incoherent and boring

Stylish but barely mediocre overall

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Ed (Callum Keith Rennie) has trouble dealing with the death of his wife from childbirth and accepting the baby boy Garnet. The older sister Flower becomes his mother figure. Eight years later, Carl (Craig Olejnik) gets 16 year old Flower (Jane McGregor) pregnant. Ed doesn't take the news well and neither does Carl.It's a quiet little Canadian indie. It's a little too quiet. Ed's emotional detachment permeates the entire movie. It's written and directed by Keith Behrman. It needs a more imaginative cinematic style. It also needs more energy. Callum Keith Rennie is a very good actor. The kid is fine but he's just a kid and not really an actor. Jane McGregor puts in a reasonable performance. There is a compelling family within this quiet little movie. However the movie doesn't have enough energy.

Vancouver writer/director Keith Behrman has a feel for small town life. It's there in every frame of this finely crafted drama about a dysfunctional family living in Cache Creek, in the British Columbia interior. That's right, dysfunctional, it's a five dollar word meaning these folks have a lot of problems. The father, Ed (Callum Keith Rennie) has been having an empty affair with a local woman (Kristin Thomsen) who deserves better. The man has kept his emotions in cold storage since his wife died eight years ago while giving birth to Garnet (Colin Roberts). Deep down inside he blames his son for the tragedy. That's a heavy burden for a kid to bear and it shows in his sad eyes. Garnet may not talk much but he's thinking all the time. He's especially curious about nature, the whole cycle of birth and death going on around him. (Reminds me of young Brian in W.O. Mitchell's classic Canadian novel "Who Has Seen the Wind") Garnet's sister, Flower (Jane McGregor), who is eight years older, has been like a mom to him. Now, after a fling with an irresponsible local Romeo, she's about to have a child of her own. Naturally, Ed flips out, afraid history is gonna repeat itself. There's a bitter argument. Flower moves out. Left to his own devices Garnet begins to "act out" in increasingly creepy ways. I could picture this kid showing up at school with a rifle in a few years. The movie shows the circumstances that can lead up to it. I'm not saying he will. In fact, the people in this film rarely do what you expect them to do. The movie takes its time about revealing its mysteries. The clues come in looks and gestures, bits of dialogue, an accumulation of seemingly unremarkable details. (This movie is not for short attention spans.) It's like being in a strange town. It takes awhile to get the lay of the land and meet the neighbours. Behrman proves to be an astute observer of human behaviour and he has pulled some wonderfully restrained performances from his cast. This may be Rennie's best work to date. And that's saying a lot. If you've seen Hard Core Logo or Suspicious River you already know his range. Roberts is a real find and based on her work here McGregor should really stop wasting her talent in piffle like 2002's Slap Her … She's French. Behrman makes good use of landscape to define character and sustain mood. The remoteness of the rural BC locations echoes the emotional isolation of the central characters. Growing up in the small Saskatchewan farming community of Shaunavon has obviously given him a special appreciation for the stark visual poetry in those wide open spaces. Judging from his feature film debut the sky is the limit.

It's not a bad film. The acting is very good and the characters are moving. But, jeez, man, the pacing, the pacing is so slow! I lost my concentration several times viewing this film.Extremely good performances by the actors that play Ed, Flower and Garnet. Ed is so emotionally constipated that he could not give of himself to his children. He lives in a state of constant anger and sorrow because his wife passed away in childbirth. His cold and disinterested behavior affects his teenage daughter and young son. I felt angry enough to want to reach into the film and punch out Ed because of how he treats his children with indifference and being stupid enough to go buy his young son a BB gun. His son, Garnet is such a lonely child who plays by himself constantly. His only connection to anyone is with his beautiful teenage sister, Flower. Flower, who is pretty much belligerent towards Ed because he is a crappy dad, gets pregnant and leave the house. Now Garnet is alone and he tries to bond with his father who has deep emotional problems of his own. Lately, Garnet has been going around shooting at animals with his gun.........I was creeped out to see a young child shooting a gun. With all the crap about kids going into schools and shooting up the place, well, it just made me feel ill. Can Ed reach his son before it's too late? This movie is too slow. I blame the director. However, I feel the climax (towards the very end of the movie) almost makes it well worth watching this long, long film. Mr. Callum Keith Rennie (who plays Ed) is mesmerizing to watch and his little emotional breakdown is very, very moving.After seeing this film, there will be no way in heck I'd want to go live in a small town in Canada. I'd get cabin fever real fast! It's an okay film. Nothing too special.

This film is another nice canadian movie. It doesn't offend or really do anything much at all. It just drifts along nicely. The acting is good and solid. Technically it is sound. It just doesn't take any chances or make any real comment on anything. It is another movie about the human condition (yawn!).