There's not a believable minute in the 92 minutes of "Last Chance Harvey," but Dustin Hoffman and Emma Thompson smooth over most of the problems just by showing up and doing what they do for a living.
To invest fully in this agreeable piffle, you'd have to accept that the middle-age lonely hearts frump played by the
luminous Thompson cannot get a date.
You'd have to buy that the composer-for-hire played by Hoffman, whose New York job is on the ropes and whose trip to
London, for his daughter's wedding, sets the narrative in motion, is charming as written. He is not.
He's charming as
played by Hoffman, once the character gets out from under all the humiliation heaped upon him by writer-director Joel
Hopkins. But as written, he's a borderline stalker. Instead of four weddings and a funeral, this is one wedding and a
stalking.
What saves Hopkins' sophomore feature effort (his first was "Jump Tomorrow" eight years ago) is the occasional
humanizing surprise amid the romantic comedy machinery. "Last Chance Harvey" introduces Harvey and Kate in their
separate orbits and in short order humiliates them, for the purposes of Getting Us On Their Side. Kate's ignored
by a blind date in a pub; Harvey arrives in London only to learn his daughter plans to have her stepfather, played
by James Brolin, give her away. Things like that.
Once we're on their side, though, Thompson delivers especially crafty work.
They meet at the airport, where Kate's working as a poll-taker for the Office of National Statistics. Chance meeting leads to conversational thaw, and one thing leads to another, and Harvey asks Kate to be his date at the wedding.
The trick with romantic comedy isn't being surprised.
The trick is being not surprised, in the right way. These characters barely exist as written. Yet you warm to Thompson and Hoffman. They don't force anything; their antennae are telling them not to, because Hopkins is doing enough on that score already. They find their points of contact as they stroll around London and share a bit of themselves, "Before Sunrise" style.
The film leads up to one bit owing more to "An Affair to Remember" than any film should owe (though this affair has
a much happier ending -- whoops, sorry, "spoiler"), and I wish Eileen Atkins (as Kate's meddlesome mum) had more than
one running gag, the one about her mysterious, possibly homicidal Polish neighbor.
"Last Chance Harvey" is what it is: a pleasant put-up job, held up by world-class pros.
Last Chance Harvey Movie Trailer
Academy Award® winners Dustin Hoffman (Rain Man) and Emma Thompson (Sense and Sensibility) reunite in Last Chance Harvey, a hopeful romance that celebrates new beginnings—at any age.
Starring: Dustin Hoffman (Harvey); Emma Thompson (Kate); Eileen Atkins (Maggie); Liane Balaban (Susan); James Brolin (Brian); Kathy Baker (Jean).
Written and directed by Joel Hopkins; photographed by John De Borman; edited by Robin Sales; production design by Jon Henson; music by Dickon Hinchliffe; produced by Tim Perell and Nicola Usborne. An Overture Films release.
Kevin James plays a mall security guard trying to stop a Black Friday robbery scheme. Underneath all the cartoonish mall
mayhem and silly slapstick lies a comedy that aspires to be the sort of gentle crowd-pleaser John Hughes used to make.
Jamal Woolard stars in this biopic about The Notorious B.I.G., the rapper who was gunned down on Wilshire Boulevard in
1997 when he was just 24. Woolard turns in a performance that goes a long way toward saving a movie that has fallen
obsessively in love with its subject.
A teen girl and her younger brother are placed in the dubious foster care of two headbangers, all the while keeping
their Jack Russell terrier a secret from their alleged caregivers. One day they discover a condemned hotel where a
few strays have set up shop, and the kids and their newfound human pals get to work rehabbing the joint. This mildly
entertaining film is loosely based on a Lois Duncan book.
Daniel Craig and Liev Schreiber portray two of the four Bielski brothers, Jewish farmers and smugglers who led more
than 1,000 Jews to safety in a Belarusian forest during the Holocaust.
Steven Soderbergh's two-part Che is a methodical if coolly romantic portrait of the most familiar 1960s T-shirt icon
outside the peace symbol. Though not without its faults, this is Soderberghs most interesting film in years, defiantly
eccentric and absorbing at its best.
This charmless film concerns two lifelong friends, played by Kate Hudson and Anne Hathaway, whose competing weddings, mistakenly scheduled for the same day at Manhattan's Plaza Hotel, turn bride-to-be against bride-to-be. Half the comedies made in Hollywood are based on the premise of boy-men acting like idiots. Switching the gender and toning down the vulgarity to a PG level offers only change, not improvement. Hathaway in particular deserves better material.
Based on a book by Bishop T.D. Jakes, this film is a faith-based love story, secondarily about God's role in the care and feeding of an L.A. couple's turbulent marriage. Thanks to Morris Chestnut, whose warm, easy screen presence was an asset way back in "Boyz N the Hood," and to Taraji P. Henson, a by-the-book scenario (described by screenwriter Brian Bird as "sort of a male version of the film 'Waiting to Exhale'") ends up being pretty entertaining.
The misadventures of a lovable Labrador retriever frame this sweet, surprisingly moving chronicle of a young couples
struggle to simultaneously build a family, advance their careers and maintain their sanity. Owen Wilson plays journalist
John Grogan, whose popular 2005 memoir spawned this film, and Jennifer Aniston plays Jenny, his wife. Dog lovers will
laugh delightedly for the first hour and spend the second hour weeping openly.
This is a tall tale of a man aging in reverse while bobbing serenely on lifes unpredictable seas. The colorful supporting
characters spill their guts to the wonder of nature played by Brad Pitt, as he begins his life a very old man, ages into
late-middle age, ripens into well, Brad Pitt, then embarks on the big fade into childhood, infancy and Check-out time.
This film spends 105 minutes grappling at the edge of camp, Cheap laughs and cliches. Yet the way it is handled by
director Darren Aronofsky and especially by Mickey Rourke, who really should get an Oscar for his portrayal of Randy The Ram
Robinson, a steroid-addled sweetie in tights, it stays honest and keeps on fighting.
Valkyrie, a plot to assassinate Hitler, stars Tom Cruise as Col. Claus von Stauffenberg, a cultured aesthete who turned
against his supreme commander. Cruise is not bad, but he cannot suggest the aristocratic hauteur or the steely authority
needed in this role. Going into this film, you know how things are going to come out. Still, with actors as good as Tom
Wilkinson, Bill Nighy, Thomas Kretschmann and Kenneth Branagh in key supporting roles, this ensemble piece avoids the
usual action-movie triumphalism.
Adam Sandler plays Skeeter, a hotel handyman under the thumb of the owner (Richard Griffiths) and manager (Guy Pearce). Skeeter and his sister (Courteney Cox) grew up in a motel bungalow court, and Skeeter longs for a crack at running the hotel that's built on the site. While Sis is away, Skeeter must baby-sit for his niece and nephew, and the adventure stories he spins become fantasy vignettes that somehow manage to improve his disappointing life. It's an adequate idea, dutifully delivered.
Kate Winslet stars in the film version of the Bernhard Schlink novel about a 15-year-old West German boy who, in 1958,
embarks on an affair with a 36-year-old trolley conductor with more on her mind, and in her past, than she admits.
The novel was hugely popular as well as controversial worldwide
Jim Carrey plays a loan officer who cannot get out of his self-pitying rut three years after a breakup. Then he encounters a self-help guru (Terence Stamp, in his first genuinely funny screen appearance) who challenges
his followers to say yes to every single thing that comes their way.
Gran Torino Gran Torino Movie Review & Movie Trailer
Clint Eastwood performance as a reclusive Korean War veteran toughing it out in a sketchy Detroit-area neighborhood may well lead to his first Academy Award for acting. After the vets young neighbor (Bee Vang) breaks into his garage to steal the car for which this film is named, our hero sets out to teach the boy how to stand up to his venal gangsta cousins.
Seven Pounds Seven Pounds Movie Review & Movie Trailer
Will Smith plays an IRS agent who has committed a terrible deed and appears to be investigating the cases of a carefully selected group of people, including a seriously ill heart patient (Rosario Dawson) and a blind pianist (Woody Harrelson).
This earnest, emotional film is a mixed but pretty interesting bag, though its G rating may mislead some parents into taking 4 or 5 year-olds to it, which could lead to some freakouts. Much of the movie, based on a Newbery Medal-winning book, has a grim narrative.
Frost / Nixon Frost / Nixon Movie Review & Movie Trailer
Last Chance Harvey starring Dustin Hoffman & Emma Thompson Movie Review | Michael Phillips Reviews Last Chance Harvey Last Chance Harvey Movie Review & Movie Trailer
Last Chance Harvey stars Dustin Hoffman & Emma Thompson.
Last Chance Harvey in Theaters this weekend Last Chance Harvey movie review and movie trailer
RSS
