By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 2.5 cats
Director: John Roberts
Starring: Bryan Dick | Carlos Acosta | Charity Wakefield | Christopher Simpson | Eva Birthistle | Manuel de Blas
Country: cuba, united_kingdom
Year: 2013
Running time: 100
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1566503/combined
Bruce says: “The value of such films as DAY OF THE FLOWERS lies not in cinematic prowess of any sort. They help us understand the many layers of many cultures that most of us never experience firsthand. On the plus side, DAY OF THE FLOWERS gives us a glimpse of life today in Cuba – the struggles an oppressive regime has created and the hope that most
people have that one day things will get better. Regrettably, the script is not particularly engaging and the acting is subpar at best, both of which undermine the film’s good qualities.
“Rosa (Eva Birthistle) and Ailie (Charity Wakefield) are sisters who have nothing in common. ‘Men don’t want women like me. They want girlies like you,’ Rosa tells Ailie. (That type of behavior is meant to bias the audience in favor of Rosa from the very beginning. Rosa is the good daughter; Ailie the hedonistic, indifferent one.) Rosa is on a mission to scatter their dead mother’s ashes in Cuba where both parents had once lived and worked. She insists on performing the ritual on the Day of the Flowers, a festival of remembrance. Ailie is a surprise tag-along, and an even greater surprise is Ailie’s friend Conway (Bryan Dick) who apparently thinks that it will be fun to drink his way through Cuba. Rosa is armed with a faded photograph and some names of people their parents knew in Cuba. That anyone could be so stupid as to think they could find such a needle in a haystack is a
stretch of the imagination; that any scriptwriter could, through a series of mishaps, allow the character to succeed on such a quixotic mission is beyond belief.
“Their taxicab breaks down. The ashes get confiscated by authorities and disappear. A well-meaning Cuban named Ernesto (Christopher Simpson) convinces Ailie that he can help her find them. He is smitten with Ailie. It is truly miraculous how Ernesto manages to show up at every turn. Rosa meanwhile goes off on her own, waving the aforementioned photograph to anyone who will pause to have a look. Her neuroses prevent her from any intimacy and she bails out of every intimate moment. She meets Tomas and supposedly there is great chemistry. We are told that; but it is difficult to see. The film seems more honest when Rosa tells Tomas, ‘I don’t want to feel – it always goes wrong.’ By the film’s end, a huge scam is uncovered and a dark secret, revealed. Unexpected romance is in the air, past and present.
“Very few films depicting modern day Cuba are available. At its best, DAY OF THE FLOWERS takes us into the villages and homes of its residents. We sense the grandeur of the old days and the see the rubble and decay that has occurred in the past half century. Only the automobiles of the 1950s have been well preserved, out of necessity. Cuba has not fared well under Castro. True, the robber barons are gone; but life for the average man is bleak, with few prospects other than the hope of leaving. It is a shame that Cuba cannot be served by a better film. 2.5 cats
“(DAY OF THE FLOWERS screened at the 2013 Miami International Film Festival.)”