The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart review: Hard-hitting Sigourney Weaver drama tackles tough subjects

• 📺 Where to watch The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart: Prime Video from 4 August
  

• ⭐️ Our rating: 4/5
  

• 🍿 Watch it if you liked: The World According to Garp, Pan's Labyrinth, Call Jane 
  

• 🎭 Who's in it?: Sigourney Weaver, Frankie Adams, Asher Keddie, Charlie Vickers, Alycia Debnam-Carey and Alyla Browne. 
  

• ⏰ How long is it? 7 x 60 minute episodes
  

• 📖 What’s it about? When Alice, aged nine, tragically loses her parents in a mysterious fire, she is taken to live with her grandmother June at Thornfield flower farm, where she learns that there are secrets within secrets about her and her family’s past.

Content warning: This television show tackles themes of domestic violence and child abuse.

Prime Video's new Australian drama The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart is a hard-hitting generational drama defined by domestic abuse which subtly moves beyond taboos thanks to staggering central performances from Alyla Browne and Alycia Debnam-Carey in the title role.

Read more: Everything new on Prime Video in August 2023

Adapted by Sarah Lambert from Holly Ringland’s international best seller, this powerful seven-part series features an outstanding ensemble cast including Sigourney Weaver (June Hart), Frankie Adams (Candy) and newcomer Alyla Browne as a young Alice Hart, who undergoes a baptism of fire in an opening episode that comes with advisory warnings.

In those opening minutes audiences are effortlessly immersed in the Australian outback through a combination of sumptuous visuals and understated score, while Clem (Charlie Vickers) and Agnes Hart (Tilda Cobham-Hervey) dance with daughter Alice (Alyla Browne) to Roxy Music – holding this fun-loving family unit up as the pinnacle of parental perfection.

However, what transpires over the next hour is a series of violent outbursts, off-camera altercations and tear-streaked protests which are silenced by physical punishment. The innocence of Alice Hart is snatched away while the insecurities of her father are visible across the arms, legs and face of his defenceless daughter.

Watch a trailer for The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart

Following a rebellious excursion into town wearing only her nightie, Alice comes into contact with the local librarian Sally (Asher Keddie) who notices the bruising. Having told her husband John (Alexander England) — who happens to be a member of the local police force — sadly nothing comes from the questioning which ensues.

Creator Sarah Lambert does an outstanding job throwing audiences off-kilter in that first hour, effectively using silences alongside an eerie original score to give events a dream like quality. That sense of disconnection feels almost essential in retrospect, as audiences are encouraged to use this sensory buffer to stomach Alice’s formative punishments and indulge her imagination.

Needless to say, this dysfunctional family soon fractures down the middle, plunging them all into freefall while Clem remains unchecked, leading to a cataclysmic end game incident – one which lands Alice in hospital and brings Sigourney Weaver onboard as her grandmother June Hart.

What other critics through of The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart

• IndieWire: Sigourney Weaver Holds Acting Master Class in Thorny Limited Series (4 min read)

From that point on The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart kicks up a notch, as Thornfield Flower Farm gets to take centre stage, offering up some heart-warming humanity to counteract the misogynistic violence from earlier.

This expands the debate around domestic abuse through a clever interchange of character experiences turning this series from solid gold drama into Prime Video perfection.

The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart will available to stream on Prime Video from 4 August.