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'Flowers' a dramatic look at how people cope

The three women in this drama are brought together by death and share a floral arrangement of isolation and sadness.

In "Flowers," Jon Garano's and Jose Mari Goenaga's dramatically restrained and detailed examination of unfulfilled women's lives, Ane (Nagore Aranburu), an unhappy, childless, menopausal wife, suddenly receives bouquets of flowers from an anonymous admirer.

They work magic on Ane, married to a dull man. She gets a new coif and develops a new life attitude brought on by a heightened sense of curiosity. Who's sending flowers?

We know they come from a nice guy named Benat (Josean Bengoetxea) who operates a crane at a construction company where Ane works as a secretary.

The plot of "Flowers" blooms when a car accident kills Benat. The flowers stop. But Ane has figured out Benat's identity. When she begins leaving flowers at Benat's crash site, his caustic widow Lourdes (Itziar Ituno) wants to know why.

"Flowers" is a textured, sobering examination of how personal loss and unfulfilled dreams impact the lives of Ane, Lourdes and her pushy mother-in-law, Tere (Itziar Aizpuru).

Javi Agirre Erauso's sparse, widescreen compositions (accompanied by Mikel Serrano's complementary production designs) emphasize the isolation of the uncommunicative women, unable to articulate their feelings, even to themselves.

"Flowers" isn't nearly as depressing as it sounds, because the three actresses open themselves up to our sympathies with ease and honesty. Still, we don't know these women well enough to feel their pain as deeply as we should. (The male characters barely register as background props.)

But, "Flowers" works as an honest testimonial to differing coping mechanisms.

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“Flowers”

★ ★ ½

Opens at the Music Box in Chicago. In Basque with subtitles. Not rated, mature audiences. 99 minutes.

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