The Flowers of War
Row 1 Entertainment | Release Date: December 21, 2011 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
46
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 22 Critic Reviews
Positive:
7
Mixed:
13
Negative:
2
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
80
Boxoffice MagazinePete HammondDec 29, 2011
Ultimately an inspiring, stirring and unforgettable human drama in the face of a horrifying war. It is highly recommended. Read full review
75
MovielineAlison WillmoreJan 19, 2012
Bale's presence in the film is a kind of misdirect, a calculated element intended to better its international commercial prospects -- his character makes a clumsily predictable journey from cynical drunken expat to hero willing to sacrifice a chance to escape the country in order to care for the children who've ended up in his charge. Read full review
75
ObserverRex ReedJan 17, 2012
It's a special film of sacrifice, redemption and hope in the shadow of a holocaust that packs an emotional wallop from which there is no escape. I can't get it out of my thoughts, and I recommend it highly. Read full review
70
Chicago ReaderJ.R. JonesJan 19, 2012
Bale admirably shoulders the burden of Western identification figure, but the heart of the story is the ongoing tension between the schoolgirls and the hookers, who see in each other aspects of womanhood that are out of their respective reach. Read full review
70
VarietyJustin ChangDec 20, 2011
Scene by scene, The Flowers of War is an erratic and ungainly piece of storytelling, full of melodramatic twists and grotesque visual excesses (a bullet pierces first a stained-glass window and then a girl's neck), which are nonetheless delivered with startling conviction. Read full review
63
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottFeb 10, 2012
That's not to say it's a bad film, necessarily. It's just not as good as it could have -- and should have -- been. Read full review
63
Boston GlobeWesley MorrisJan 19, 2012
The Flowers of War is the latest movie focused on the Nanking atrocities. Lu Chuan's "City of Life and Death'' was released in the United States last year and presented a far greater, grimmer, and more punishing re-creation of the sacking. Read full review
60
Total FilmPaul BradshawJul 28, 2012
Less about the thousands who died in the Nanking massacre than about how stunning it all looked, Zhang Yimou's epic puts Bale in the midst of a lavish nightmare. Read full review
58
The A.V. ClubTasha RobinsonJan 18, 2012
Many of Flowers' individual performances and scenes are striking and masterful, but taken as a whole, it's less a film than a rallying cry of "Our people feel more deeply than yours." Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam LaceyFeb 23, 2012
While Bale speaks in an anachronistically modern American vernacular, the Chinese cast recite grammatically perfect, phonetic English so stilted you find yourself wishing the film would stick to subtitles. This is not so much a question of a story being lost in translation as a movie that never finds the right story to tell. Read full review
50
Chicago TribuneSheri LindenJan 19, 2012
When it comes to storytelling, Zhang Yimou's 19th feature is decidedly backward-looking: A lavish period weepie set against the atrocities of the Nanking Massacre, "Flowers" abounds with well-worn movie archetypes and slathers on schmaltz. Read full review
50
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertJan 18, 2012
Now let me ask you: Can you think of any reason the character John Miller is needed to tell his story? Was any consideration given to the possibility of a Chinese priest? Would that be asking for too much? Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleWalter AddiegoDec 22, 2011
Affecting at times, but finally feels overblown and heavy-handed. Read full review
50
Slant MagazineAndrew SchenkerDec 19, 2011
This film has too many weak, unconnected strands (what's the subplot about the narrator's father doing here anyway?), too much overtly expositional dialogue, and too unfocused a narrative to really cohere. And then there's that whole matter of expendable whores. Read full review
40
Arizona RepublicRichard NilsenMar 29, 2012
The film is cinematically brilliant but morally obtuse. Read full review
40
Los Angeles TimesSheri LindenDec 26, 2011
Flowers abounds with well-worn movie archetypes and slathers on schmaltz. Read full review
40
New York Daily NewsElizabeth WeitzmanDec 22, 2011
The biggest problem, however, is the way Zhang romanticizes the unimaginably awful, turning gold-hearted prostitutes and virginal orphans into cinematic martyrs. Though his talents are vast, there may be too much truth in this particular story to suit his extravagant tastes. Read full review
40
The New York TimesMike HaleDec 20, 2011
Mr. Bale, turning in a respectable if oddly chipper performance under the circumstances, has the unfortunate task of playing a character who doesn't really add up. Read full review
40
Time OutDavid FearDec 20, 2011
Zhang's mixture of unsparing violence, mawkish sentimentality and garish flourishes creates one uncomfortable aesthetic. Read full review
40
Village VoiceTim GriersonDec 20, 2011
With The Flowers of War, Zhang mostly just proves that there's no tragedy too terrible that it can't be turned into an operatic pageant - human suffering reduced to visual showmanship. Read full review
30
The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyJan 24, 2012
It's something you'd think only the crassest of Hollywood producers would come up with - injecting sex appeal into an event as ghastly at the Nanjing massacre - but it's an element central to The Flowers of War, a contrived and unpersuasive look at an oft-dramatized historical moment. Read full review
25
New York PostV.A. MusettoDec 23, 2011
Zhang Yimou, one of China's best-known filmmakers, deserves a great big lump of coal in his holiday stocking thanks to his ludicrous soap opera The Flowers of War. Read full review
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