I liked Emma Thompson before seeing "Last Chance Harvey," but while watching this wretched little botch of a "film," I really came to love Emma Thompson. That she could glimmer like the sun in such a waste of celluloid is proof that she is a gift to the film-goer.
Aside from Thompson's sunny, intelligent, witty and poignant performance, this movie is a dreadful waste. Even Dustin Hoffman, who I thought could NEVER bore me, is all but invisible here in a thankless, limp, derivative, pointless, script that would have to rise up several notches to reach "Lifeline TV movie" quality.
"Last Chance Harvey" is meant to be a romantic comedy. If, at any point in the movie, Dustin Hoffman's Harvey character suddenly whipped out a knife and stabbed Kate (Emma Thompson) to death, and it was revealed that the entire time he was a crazed stalker who has murdered women in order to steal their life savings, that scene would have fit beautifully with everything that had gone before. The film is that devoid of romance, that devoid of comedy, that devoid of characterization. All we know about Harvey is that he drinks too much, and he is a social and economic loser who has failed his wife, his daughter, and his boss. Thompson endures his awkward insistence on taking her time, but why? Nothing is believable, nothing is at stake, nothing happens.
I won't tell you how it ends, but I can say that I kept urging Emma Thompson's character to walk away from Harvey, permanently.
This is all, obviously, the fault of the director and screenwriter, whose name I won't even mention here. I don't want to hurt anyone's feelings. I just want to warn viewers away from this movie.
Some viewers argue that even though the movie is not that good, older people should go see it, because Hoffman is 71 and Thompson is 49. Baloney. Why should audiences accept shlocky, inept, insipid, lifeless movies just because they are older? Older audiences deserve just as much craft, art, mystery, profundity, dollars visibly splayed on screen as any teenage male comic book action hero fan.
"Last Chance Harvey" is the movie industry saying to older people: "Look. We know you aren't chomping at the bit to see the latest Batman or teen gross out comedy. We know you are desperate. We know that once we plunk Hoffman and Thompson into this movie, and put them both in London, you'll come see it. So don't expect a script, or a plot, or any direction, or production values, either, other than costuming Hoffman and Thompson in matching trench coats."
Aside from Thompson's sunny, intelligent, witty and poignant performance, this movie is a dreadful waste. Even Dustin Hoffman, who I thought could NEVER bore me, is all but invisible here in a thankless, limp, derivative, pointless, script that would have to rise up several notches to reach "Lifeline TV movie" quality.
"Last Chance Harvey" is meant to be a romantic comedy. If, at any point in the movie, Dustin Hoffman's Harvey character suddenly whipped out a knife and stabbed Kate (Emma Thompson) to death, and it was revealed that the entire time he was a crazed stalker who has murdered women in order to steal their life savings, that scene would have fit beautifully with everything that had gone before. The film is that devoid of romance, that devoid of comedy, that devoid of characterization. All we know about Harvey is that he drinks too much, and he is a social and economic loser who has failed his wife, his daughter, and his boss. Thompson endures his awkward insistence on taking her time, but why? Nothing is believable, nothing is at stake, nothing happens.
I won't tell you how it ends, but I can say that I kept urging Emma Thompson's character to walk away from Harvey, permanently.
This is all, obviously, the fault of the director and screenwriter, whose name I won't even mention here. I don't want to hurt anyone's feelings. I just want to warn viewers away from this movie.
Some viewers argue that even though the movie is not that good, older people should go see it, because Hoffman is 71 and Thompson is 49. Baloney. Why should audiences accept shlocky, inept, insipid, lifeless movies just because they are older? Older audiences deserve just as much craft, art, mystery, profundity, dollars visibly splayed on screen as any teenage male comic book action hero fan.
"Last Chance Harvey" is the movie industry saying to older people: "Look. We know you aren't chomping at the bit to see the latest Batman or teen gross out comedy. We know you are desperate. We know that once we plunk Hoffman and Thompson into this movie, and put them both in London, you'll come see it. So don't expect a script, or a plot, or any direction, or production values, either, other than costuming Hoffman and Thompson in matching trench coats."