THE LOST FLOWERS OF ALICE HART

THE LOST FLOWERS OF ALICE HART is a seven-part miniseries on Amazon Prime about Alice, who goes to live with her estranged grandmother, June, after her parents are killed in a mysterious house fire when Alice is 9-years old. June, played by Sigourney Weaver, runs a flower farm in rural Australia with her female partner, Trig. The farm also serves as a battered women’s refuge, where the female residents and employees use a symbolic code of flowers to communicate. Later episodes reveal that June, and a female librarian who Alice befriended in the town where she lived with her parents, kept secrets from her about her parents. When Alice reaches 23, she learns about one of June’s major secrets and angrily leaves the farm, only to run into problems with an abusive boyfriend.

Based on a novel by Holly Ringland, THE LOST FLOWERS OF ALICE HART tells a sociopolitical dramatic story about domestic abuse and dysfunctional family issues. Ultimately, however, it focuses on the prevalence of violent behavior of men against women. As a result, the story weaves a tale about domestic abuse and rape, and its consequences for one family in rural Australia.

Almost every frame in THE LOST FLOWERS OF ALICE HART feels like it was crafted to be the most important image in the program . The level of care put into every detail of LOST FLOWERS is evident. The movie’s bewitching cinematography is reminiscent of a Terrence Malick or Zack Snyder movie. LOST FLOWERS also has impressive sound design and editing, and what is arguably a career-best performance from Sigourney Weaver. Finally, the complex plot peels back layers with the perfect timing, not so fast as to kill the narrative tension, but not so slow as to make the viewer lose interest. However, the program too often reveals crucial information for viewers in flashback. For example, a flashback reveals that, as a teenager, Alice had developed a romantic relationship with a childhood friend who is, along with his mother, an illegal alien from Bulgaria. Alice and the boy agreed to marry one another when they reached 18. Several scenes later, another flashback, mixed with scenes in the present day, reveals that June, Alice’s grandmother, connived to get the boy deported back to Bulgaria because she didn’t want Alice to run away with him to Bulgaria. For five years, the boy wrote to Alice, but June hid the letters from her. Alice finds out about everything when she finally sees a letter from the boy, who writes that he wrote to her for five years and didn’t get a reply. In the new letter, he tells Alice he’s met another girl, and they’re going to get married. Alice is devastated by this new information. Angrily, she leaves the flower farm, intending never to return. The movie also reveals that June’s lesbian partner, Trig, went along with June’s plan regarding the boy and Alice. However, when Trig also learns later that June kept another important family secret from both her and Alice, she also decides to leave the farm and look for Alice. Although these flashbacks, as they play out, lead to some powerful dramatic scenes, they can be frustrating to viewers, especially those who prefer a more straightforward plot structure.

Sadly, THE LOST FLOWERS OF ALICE HART tells its story of men physically abusing girls and women from a Romantic, politically correct, feminist perspective. For example, it offers mostly secular, emotional Romantic, feminist solutions to the problem of men committing acts of physical abuse and rape (including a past case of incest) in and outside the home. No religious solutions are offered, much less any Christian or biblical ones. The characters in LOST FLOWERS, including the two evil male villains in the story, have no religious, spiritual background, and no traditional moral philosophies or guidelines by which to live. The program does have some touching scenes of family reconciliation, however. Also, it suggests at one point that men who physically abuse women and children may have other traits that are positive, such as an ability to act heroically in some situations.

THE LOST FLOWERS OF ALICE HART also has repeated depictions of physical domestic abuse. It also has lots of strong foul language throughout the seven episodes, plus some scenes of fornication, a verbal reference to incest, a lesbian subplot for the title character’s grandmother, some drunkenness by the title character, and brief marijuana use.

Women are three times more likely to be physically abused by a husband or boyfriend than men by a wife or girlfriend. Also, in Australia nearly 2.1 million women and men witnessed violence towards their mother by a partner, and nearly 820,000 witnessed violence towards their father, before the age of 15. So, violently abusive men are indeed a major social problem. However, if we really want to make a dent in this problem, feely-touchy solutions will not really help. In fact, they ironically just promote the stereotype of women as victims of mean, evil men who are not held accountable by society at large. LOST FLOWERS does, however, promote the idea that women must speak out loudly to the authorities whenever they suffer physical abuse.