Flower and Garnet begins with a new life and a death, both of which strike the same family. It is a hauntingly quiet film that honestly explores the emotions of guilt, blame and hope.
When Garnet (Colin Roberts) entered the world, his mother left it due to complications giving birth. His father, Ed (Callum Keith Rennie), wanted to abandon his son. He blamed the baby for the loss of his wife. But Ed’s younger daughter Flower (Jane McGregor) stepped in and brought her brother home to raise. The film picks up with a school-aged Garnet and a teenaged Flower. Their home is filled with angst as Ed has created a distance between him and his son. With Flower blossoming into womanhood, she is looking for some distance from her brother’s sordid stares and tag-along attitude. This growing up is sped along by Flower getting knocked up by a cute but not too bright local boy (Craig Olejnik).
Filmed in British Columbia’s moderately desolate interior, the location adds to the loneliness and disconnection all of the characters share. The small town traps them with no where to go except out into the even more desolate desert that surrounds them. The stark landscapes and lakeside vistas are beautiful, but then again I acknowledge that I have a thing for lonely locations á la Fargo, A Simple Plan and Atanarjuat. It’s kind of like the fact that you can’t hear anything in outer space. Living in a place that’s cut off from the rest of the world amplifies your own problems because there isn’t a lot of opportunities for others to share your same feelings. For me, a lonely locale adds tremendous tension and when you’ve already got something with lots of conflict you get into it just that much more.
All of the actors come to the film with an understated approach to the craft that makes them all too human, exposing their character’s vulnerable sides for all to see as if they were naked mannequins in a department store window. Colin Roberts, who was eight-years-old at the time of filming, is unflinching as Garnet. No matter the situation, his face doesn’t change, except maybe when he decides to try to eat a little dirt out of curiosity. This is not a normal boy we’re dealing with. He’s grown up without a mother’s nurturing and been given the cold shoulder from a father who blames this little boy. Garnet is curious about the world that surrounds him, but that same curiosity has gotten him shunned by his father and ignored by his sister who is quickly growing more and more independent.
Although drama is the overriding emotion throughout Flower and Garnet, the mood is broken up with a fair amount of humor. Much of it comes from the dopey Ronnie (Dov Tiefenbach), a neighborhood kid that’s grown up with Flower. Ronnie is funny but his role as the village idiot does little other than brief bits of comic relief. There is enough natural humor that emerges from small moments that feel so unique and simple that they could only come from a real-life experience.
It’s amazing what direct Keith Behrman has done with Flower and Garnet on a tight budget both visually and emotionally. It is a gorgeous film that sent me through the ringer with its sad subject matter and sombre mood. It also provides some hope that Canadian films can still find a moderately wide release, even if they aren’t screwy comedies like Red Green’s Duct Tape Forever and throwaway farces such as Men With Brooms. I’ll take something as honest as Flower and Garnet any day.
