Wednesday, January 21, 2009

LAST CHANCE HARVEY

“LAST CHANCE HARVEY” (Dustin Hoffman & Emma Thompson)

This film is backward from what I normally complain about – I liked the ending, but didn’t like the set up at all! The whole idea of this film is that you’re suppose to feel sorry for Harvey(Hoffman) & I didn’t; I felt sorry for Emma’s Kate as she was a nice person ‘trapped’ in a boring life- Harvey was simply a putz who pretty much deserved all the ‘uncomfortable’ moments we witness throughout the film.
Uncomfortable is the perfect word to describe this movie – as that’s how I felt throughout most of it. Did that make it realistic? You bet it did, but I didn’t like feeling that way for such a long time – I’m okay with being uncomfortable for a bit, but eventually you have to make it up to me by becoming entertaining in some fashion & this film never quite gets there... With Kate’s first uncomfortable moment, I could relate to her – Stuck on a blind date with a stranger she has nothing in common with, who is obviously a few years younger than she & then to be joined by a group of his even younger friends. The redeeming part of this scene is that the blind date isn’t a jerk – he gives Kate several ‘sorry about this’ looks as he seems to feel genuinely bad for the situation he’s put her in.
Harvey, on the other hand, was overly pathetic – I knew he was about to be fired & I felt bad for his boss because Harvey wasn’t seeing the writing on the wall. There’s a tacked-on scene near the end where Harvey ‘gets revenge’ on his boss, which I felt was totally unnecessary – I don’t think anyone blamed the boss at all, in fact, he seemed like a decent guy that was giving Harvey his ‘Last Chance’ out of the goodness of his heart. To have Harvey ‘stick it to him’ later was just mean spirited. But the main slight on Harvey (& this is a bit of a SPOILER, but it does occur early in the film & has been mentioned in other reviews) is when his daughter tells him she’d rather have her step-father, Brian (James Brolin) walk her down the aisle instead of her ‘birth’ daddy. I mention this because this is the main selling point of the plot where we are suppose to feel empathy for Harvey & I didn’t – I understood exactly why his daughter felt that way after we’ve watched Harvey bumble his way thru the pre-wedding dinner.
The wedding is taking place in London, & Harvey, a composer of jingle music for commercials is in the middle of trying to keep a major client from jumping to another agency when his boss informs him that he’s going to let the ‘younger guys’ take a crack at keeping them. So Harvey is constantly talking on his cell phone back to America & never turns the thing off. At the night before the wedding dinner, Harvey’s cell starts ringing & he instantly jumps up & stumbles his way to a quieter spot so he can hear the caller. So when the daughter tells him she’s having Brian give her away, I didn’t feel bad for Harvey – the girl had to fear a scenario where Harvey was walking her down the aisle, his cell phone rings & he leaves her to go take the call! Of course, Harvey mopes & feels rejected, but it’s his own damn fault!
When Harvey & Kate first cross paths, Kate is just doing her job & Harvey is rude to her (Another admirable trait) It is ONLY after Harvey is humbled by his daughter’s decision that he apologizes to Kate when they meet a second time (After all, London IS the Graham of the U.K. - everybody knows everybody, right?)
Harvey shows another personality plus when he starts stalking Kate; She, being an exceptionally nice person, can’t bring herself to call the police like she should. In this case, however, the stalker isn’t a bad guy at all, just a ‘loser’ feeling sorry for himself in a strange (small) town. It wasn’t until the final 10 minutes or so that I began to wish that Harvey & Kate would wind up together; whether it be his persistence or the fact that I finally relented that the dumb schmuck deserved a break & she definitely deserved some happiness in her life – I’m not sure – probably a combination of both, but it didn’t even bother me that he was much too old, homely & short for her.
A sub-plot involving Kate’s mother & a Polish next door neighbor REALLY falls flat & I won’t complain about Harvey’s hair going from grey to black to grey over the long weekend – My wife suggested he tried England’s version of Grecian Formula, but it didn’t last on American hair... made sense to me.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Just getting home from seeing this. I was rather bored. I thought Emma Thompson was good but I felt Dustin phoned it in. I know that is like damning God or something, but that is how I honestly feel. It was an OK movie. I would recommend to wait and rent it.

Oh, by the way, since the Oscar's were announced, I went back to each review of film's you reviewed that recieved a Oscar nomination and gave each film a Oscar shout out.

Terry Reid said...

Don't worry, M-luva, I thought Dustin's roles in 'Kramer V. Kramer' & 'Rain Man' were boring / & / bland & I have yet to be struck dead by a bolt of lightning.
I read your comments on the Oscar films - 'Australia' did receive one nomination - for costumes!
& yes, I was delighted to see Richard Jenkins get a well deserved nomination, but I don't really 'predict', I more or less just state my opinion & if Academy voters don't agree with me, well, what the heck do THEY know?
& finally - Robert Downey, Jr. did the impossible - Received a nomination for a role that I never would have thought Hollywood would have recognized as a legitimate contender! Alan Smithee was right after all - Movies like 'Tropic Thunder' don't receive Oscar nominations except when they do.
For the record, Supporting Actor is the ONLY category in which I have no complaints about any of the nominees - I would have selected Emile Hirsch over Brolin for 'Milk' & I didn't expect PSH to be in this category for 'Doubt'(Wasn't he the co-star?) So maybe a nod to Liev Schreiber for 'Defiance' or Bill Nighy for 'Valkyrie' would have been nice to see a new name in the running. But my biggest complaint, oddly enough, comes in the Documentary Feature list - How does 'Religulous' not get a nomination?