Last Chance Harvey: A Review

I went to go see Last Chance Harvey on a bitter cold Saturday afternoon. Despite the weather, the matinee time slot, and the relative dearth of publicity (that I've seen, anyway), the theater I saw it in was packed. Not super-jammed, but full enough that I had to look for a seat that wasn't sandwiched between two other people. I will specifically note, also, that I was by far the youngest person in the room.

Starring Dustin Hoffman as Harvey Shine and Emma Thompson as Kate Walker, Last Chance Harvey is a movie that explores love and romance in a time of loneliness and disappointment. Harvey is a New York City ad-jingle writer who travels to London to see his estranged daughter married off, while his ex-wife's new man steps in to take his spot in the wedding. Kate, who is some sort of customer service manager for the airline, is struggling to emotionally support her depressed shut-in mother while trying to maintain some kind of normal social life. It's late in life for them both, they've both had life dump on them, and we follow their journey for some kind of relief from their loneliness. This journey, which could be dreary or depressing in any other movie, is handled here with humor, grace and, above all, hope, and Last Chance Harvey ends up being absolutely lovely.

I'll tell you right now that the first half of the movie is rocky - not in that it's a badly-made movie, but in that we are basically exposed to a litany of terrible things that happen to Harvey. In fact, that's a theme that's kept up through the movie; Harvey is pretty much a walking damage case. However, once the two meet, things slowly, slowly begin to coalesce. The really fantastic thing is that it's not a formulaic love story; there are real obstacles and frustrations along the way, and reactions to these stumbling blocks aren't predictable or hackneyed at all.

The material is excellent, but the acting by Hoffman and Thompson is enthralling. Admittedly Hoffman is an unusual romantic lead - frumpy, stumbling, and quite a bit shorter than Thompson, but he is very easy to identify with. Harvey is wounded and tired, but not blatantly so, and we believe every second thanks to Hoffman's understated, subtle performance. Despite the fact that Harvey's kind of a loser - maybe because of that - we really root for the guy, and Hoffman's portrayal is spot-on. Indeed, he delivers a monologue during the course of the movie that had me misting up.

Of course, Thompson excels in every scene. I've made no secret that I believe her to be one of the most beautiful, graceful, and intelligent actresses on either side of the pond (I've felt so since I saw her way back in Much Ado About Nothing), and here she is able to exude a fragile, tentative hope that makes her all the more amazing. As Kate, she is able to convey a great deal of emotion with seemingly little effort. Her performance, like that of Hoffman, is subtle and amazing.

Last Chance Harvey is that rarest breed of all: a romantic movie that steers wide of being mushy or saccharine, while being thoroughly entertaining from beginning to end. This may actually be one of the best modern-day romantic comedies I've ever seen; I'd easily put it up with The Princess Bride and Stranger Than Fiction.

Comments

[Melissa Stafford]

Nice review....I'll have to check this one out. You know I can't pass up a good romantic movie. By the way - have you seen 7 pounds yet? I was thinking of checking that one out....the story is very curious.