Charming and unique.
rikv14 | Toronto, ON Canada | 05/20/2002
(5 out of 5 stars)
""Man of Flowers" shows a few months from the life of a man who as the result of childhood traumas has become devoid of the need for human relationships, and consequently, never developed social skills necessary to build and sustain them. Being thus freed from the hang-up on relationships, he has become rarefied, and has escaped instead into the safety of another hang-up - beauty in its various forms: flowers, music, human body in painting and sculpture. He's not unhappy, but he is considered to be so, and to cure this perceived suffering he is in psychotherapy. As part of it, he's told to build relationships, and he tries to, clumsily and hilariously, with quite unlikely characters: his therapist, postman, long-deceased mother, construction contractor. None of those are real and normal relationships, and as he fails to see that, and lacks the sense of danger, he is easy prey to manipulators. He also has an on-going acquaintance with a young and pretty girl - an artists' model. At first glance it looks like this one might be a normal relationship, but on his side it's nothing more than an acquaintance - he doesn't see the girl as a person, but merely as an object of beauty (his "flower"). He doesn't do it out of ill will, he simply doesn't have a need, or an idea, for anything more. The girl, on the other hand, becomes fond of him, increasingly more so as her relationship with her junkie boyfriend deteriorates. He turns down her offer of living together, and proves to be more protective than fond of her by solving her boyfriend problem in a truly ingenious way.
A charming movie, portraying a man who's not "from Mars" but perhaps from Jupiter."
A Real Gem!
R. Epstein | USA | 03/11/2002
(5 out of 5 stars)
"It's a rare thing to see a film that so unabashedly (without being over-sentimental!) reveals an individual's need to fulfil his desire for aesthetic beauty. This is a quiet, honest film that is a 'must see' for people who also share a great love for art and music. I wish they made more films like this!"