Ordinary Lives Are Interwoven in Intricate ‘Flowers’

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CHICAGO – The meaning of our lives is elusive, and the time we spend here too short. The Spanish foreign language film “Flowers” seeks to define the meaning, through three women trying to memorialize one man. “Flowers” opens at Chicago’s Music Box Theatre on Dec. 18th, 2015.

What is remarkable about the story is the ordinariness of the characters. They were all working class – a toll collector, a crane operator and a construction clerk – and they’re all occupying themselves with day-to-day drudgery. When a mystery begins, and a accident occurs, their obsessions regarding the shifts in their lives, due to those two situations, lead them on a path to change and redemption. In the European film atmosphere, none of the actors are glamorous, but simply know how to deliver the emotions to make this story inspirational. Beyond stopping and smelling the flowers, it opined that the beauty of the bouquet – like life – is delicate and momentary.

Ane (Nagore Aranburu) receives some harsh news. The late thirtysomething woman is going through an early menopause, and this information puts the already reticent construction clerk into a bit of funk. Her mood shifts when she begins to receive flowers on a weekly basis, with no note or source. This causes a rift between her and her fiancé, because they can’t find out who is delivering these packages, and Ane then takes the bouquets to work to hide them.

Nagore Aranburu
Ane (Nagore Aranburu) Tries to Blossom in ‘Flowers’
Photo credit: Music Box Films

There is a crane operator at Ane’s worksite named Beñat (Joesean Bengoetxea), and the attitude of his mother Tere (Itziar Alzpuru) is causing problems between him and his wife Lourdes (Itziar Ituño). In a swift turn of events, Beñat is killed in a car crash, and the site of the crash begins to be memorialized in flowers. At the same time, the weekly deliveries for Ane ceases, and the lives of the mother, wife and co-worker are about to be inexplicably linked.

It is the story of the women, but it also has a strange twist regarding Beñat – he had instructions upon his death that his body would be donated to a medical school, with his cremated ashes returning to the family in five years. What happens to the three women during those years are the guts of the narrative. Was the crane operator also the flower giver? Why does Ane feel a need to get involved with his family? Why is wife Lourdes so angry?

All of these questions are answered through thoughtful and appropriately felt performances. All three women are standouts, each keeping their motivations closed off to the outer world, but passively and aggressively asserting them in different ways. Itziar Alzpuru as mother Tere is the highlight, she is able to communicate forms of irritation, stubbornness (“you’re not dead until somebody forgets you”) and ultimately a sadness due to old age. The European cinema community has the most interesting character actors, and in this film their performances are fraught with both physical and soulful presence.

The film also points toward the sensations and vibrations of its settings. Directors Jon Garaño and Jose Mari Goenaga take advantage of a construction site, for example, to exploit the angles in points of view. It takes on a certain appeal, with its cranes reaching towards the heavens and the industrial nature of the site interacting with their human drivers. Of course, flowers are explored, and the film manages to highlight some unusual bouquets up close and personal, but the budding stems are not outside anything that could be bought at a florist. In this scenario, stop and look at them.

Itziar Ituño
Lourdes (Itziar Ituño) in ‘Flowers’
Photo credit: Music Box Films

Life happens in this film, which also reminds us that anything can change in an instant. The common, ordinary rhythms which people can get trapped in can be rapidly gone, and then a new set of circumstances must be dealt with and lived through. The script – co-written by the directors – cleverly places the corpse of Beñat in the medical school setting, which hovers over the rest of the characters because his remains are never really buried and gone. And at the end of the five years he comes back in another form, which creates yet another alteration in the everyday rhythms.

There is an old Paul McCartney song (co-written with Elvis Costello) that has the lyric, “She Sprinkles Flowers In The Dirt/That’s When A Thrill Becomes A Hurt.” In this “Flowers” film the bouquets bring both the thrill and the hurt, and is a reminder of the need to keep going through all the feelings we will experience.

“Flowers” has a limited run beginning December 18th at the Music Box Theatre, 3733 North Southport Avenue, Chicago. See listings for show times. Featuring Itziar Ituño, Nagore Aranburu, Itziar Alzpuru and Joesean Bengoetxea. Written by Jon Garaño, Jose Mari Goenaga and Altor Arregi. Directed by Jon Garaño and Jose Mari Goenaga. Not Rated.

HollywoodChicago.com senior staff writer Patrick McDonald

By PATRICK McDONALD
Writer, Editorial Coordinator
HollywoodChicago.com
pat@hollywoodchicago.com

© 2015 Patrick McDonald, HollywoodChicago.com

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