LAST CHANCE HARVEY 3.0***(close to 3.5***on the “feel good” scale) [ A 2008 RENTAL..out of the theatres] This may not be your last chance but perhaps it is your best chance to see a very fine movie about how difficult but very special love can be for older adults who may think love is over for them. We have the marvelous combination of Dustin Hoffman as the divorced and disillusioned “last chance” Harvey and Emma Thompson as the over 40yish and still single Kate. He’s American, she’s British and the venue is beautiful London. Nothing more about the story. You really need to see it without any more clues…this is so much about the journey and not the destination.
It is interesting however to know how the film came to be with Hoffman and Thompson in it. It was an outgrowth of their having a great time together making “Stanger Than Fiction” in which they had supporting roles…Will Ferrell was the lead. The young Australian writer, Joel Hopkins, and friend and admirer of Thompson started writing this story with Thompson in mind and when she suggested to him that Hoffman be the male lead, he wrote the rest of the story for both of them and they both agreed to do it. Hopkins also became the Director and was wise enough to let H and T play themselves for the most part rather than devise characters and also gave them much freedom to improvise the dialogue. These decisions make the film and the characters right on and remarkably realistic. Hoffman and Thompson are simply wonderful..they capture the loneliness and quiet desperation of people looking for that last chance…. they do it perfectly and in the process generate a warm, comfortable, “just right” chemistry.
Their romance, with resonances of “An Affair to Remember”, is strangely sweet, even though they are certainly an odd couple (she towers over him). But they’re both so very good that the film is immensely likeable. They do not do anything remarkable: they walk and talk, go shopping, sit by a fountain and throw up issues of logic and nonsense. “Last Chance Harvey” is a love story primarily for grownups and one that lingers, like a good book or a good wine that leaves its distinctive taste even after the glass is finished. Finally, It's wonderful to watch young people falling in love for the first time. But it is even more wonderful to see people falling in love for the last time.
If you’ve been looking for a well done “feel good” movie, this is it. And although the over 40 crowd will definitely enjoy this, the younger crowd could learn a thing or two about love and romance too from spending a few film days with Harvey and Kate.
THIS IS A RENTAL.