January 30, 2009
Review: Last Chance Harvey
Emma Thompson is a Goddess
I'll admit my bias right away: I love Emma Thompson. Not just because she's a talented actress and screenwriter (everyone knows she won an Oscar for her 1995 "Sense and Sensibility" screenplay, right?). She's also a really cool human being. She is smart--she once said in an interview that her only regret was not reading Homer in Greek--and funny as heck. After her husband Kenneth Branagh ran off with Helena Bonham-Carter, Thompson did him one better by picking up her dishy, younger co-star Greg Wise, having a child with him, then marrying him--in that order.
Hoffman and Thompson
I went to see "Last Chance Harvey" because it's always a treat to see Thompson do her stuff on the screen, and I was not disappointed. Of course Dustin Hoffman is no slouch: without his talent the titular character could have come off as too brash to be sympathetic. Instead, Thompson's and Hoffman's fine performances are the lovely centerpiece of this straightforward, character-driven romance.
Estranged divorcee Harvey Shine (Hoffman) is in London for his daughter's wedding, but constantly worries about losing his jingle-writing job back home. Survey-taker Kate Waters (Thompson) is living single in London, beset by well-meaning friends and constant phone calls from her querulous mother. The movie takes its time establishing the characters' lives before they meet, which is appropriate given their maturity. These aren't moonstruck teenagers, after all. They're adults with a lot of baggage.
And this is where the movie does so much better than the typical, superficial Hollywood depiction of what loneliness feels like. We are allowed to see Kate and Harvey experience profound feelings of alienation from family and society-a far cry from Bridget Jones, for example, and her boozy isolation.
Another refreshingly grown-up feature: the movie does not buy into the myth of love at first sight. The characters do not lock eyes and fall immediately into bed. It is only Harvey's tenacity that coxes Kate to talk to him at all. After their initial meeting, the two protagonists warily get to know each other over the course of one night, in what has aptly been called a mature version of "Before Sunrise."
The movie proceeds as one might expect, with enough hitches to create the necessary tension. There's no real surprise in romantic comedies, but the most important point is for the audience to really want the characters to get together. We do. Thompson's radiant but shy smile and Hoffman's expert eyebrows are a winning combination, and we're rooting for these two lonely (but all too understandable) people to find some common ground by the end.
The movie doesn't insist that love conquers all, or even imply that there's a happily ever after for everyone. It merely suggests that it's never too late to find happiness, no matter how long you've put off the search. And that's as pleasant a moral as anyone can ask for.
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