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A couple of pros wasted
By David Germain |
January 11, 2009, Sunday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
IT'S nice to see film makers occasionally spin a story of fresh romance for the ageing set. Yet it's disappointing that "Last Chance Harvey" casts actors with the craft and chemistry of Dustin Hoffman (below left) and Emma Thompson (right) in a love story as sappy and shallow as any other in Hollywood.
Reuniting the "Stranger Than Fiction" co-stars, writer-director Joel Hopkins provides plenty of room for them to say and do endearing things.
But the drama and emotion hang so heavily on cliche, blind chance and mawkish sentiment that "Last Chance Harvey" comes off as a halfhearted exercise for two great actors aiming to charm the pants off each other and the audience.
Almost inevitably, Hoffman and Thompson are charming but even they can't turn Hopkins' thin story into a credible tale. Both lead characters come with overly convenient back-stories to set up their incipient romance.
Hoffman's Harvey Shine is a New Yorker who wasn't good enough to realize his dream to become a jazz pianist and now faces the prospect of losing his job as a jingle writer for commercials.
Amid the career pressure, Harvey heads off for the wedding of his daughter (Liane Balaban) in London, where he has an uncomfortable reunion with his ex-wife (Kathy Baker) and suffers heartbreak when his little girl says she wants her stepfather (James Brolin) to give her away.
Harvey has a couple of chance encounters and near-encounters with Kate (Thompson), a London lonely-heart who surveys travelers at Heathrow airport. We get to see Kate on yet another blind date turned sour and witness a few moments with her mildly daft mother (Eileen Atkins) before she and Harvey meet up for real at an airport bar.
By the time the two strike up a conversation, Harvey should be fully in wallowing self-pity mode but he inexplicably shifts to pickup stance.
If their bond that quickly forms works at all, it's because of Hoffman and Thompson's warmth and tenderness, which compensate for the script's unlikely turns and artificial behavior.
Implausible as their romance proves, Hoffman and Thompson are enjoyable to watch, a couple of acting pros injecting a degree of kinship and compassion even into a story as cloying as this. Just as Harvey and Kate come to realize about their own empty little lives, Hoffman and Thompson deserve better.
Reuniting the "Stranger Than Fiction" co-stars, writer-director Joel Hopkins provides plenty of room for them to say and do endearing things.
But the drama and emotion hang so heavily on cliche, blind chance and mawkish sentiment that "Last Chance Harvey" comes off as a halfhearted exercise for two great actors aiming to charm the pants off each other and the audience.
Almost inevitably, Hoffman and Thompson are charming but even they can't turn Hopkins' thin story into a credible tale. Both lead characters come with overly convenient back-stories to set up their incipient romance.
Hoffman's Harvey Shine is a New Yorker who wasn't good enough to realize his dream to become a jazz pianist and now faces the prospect of losing his job as a jingle writer for commercials.
Amid the career pressure, Harvey heads off for the wedding of his daughter (Liane Balaban) in London, where he has an uncomfortable reunion with his ex-wife (Kathy Baker) and suffers heartbreak when his little girl says she wants her stepfather (James Brolin) to give her away.
Harvey has a couple of chance encounters and near-encounters with Kate (Thompson), a London lonely-heart who surveys travelers at Heathrow airport. We get to see Kate on yet another blind date turned sour and witness a few moments with her mildly daft mother (Eileen Atkins) before she and Harvey meet up for real at an airport bar.
By the time the two strike up a conversation, Harvey should be fully in wallowing self-pity mode but he inexplicably shifts to pickup stance.
If their bond that quickly forms works at all, it's because of Hoffman and Thompson's warmth and tenderness, which compensate for the script's unlikely turns and artificial behavior.
Implausible as their romance proves, Hoffman and Thompson are enjoyable to watch, a couple of acting pros injecting a degree of kinship and compassion even into a story as cloying as this. Just as Harvey and Kate come to realize about their own empty little lives, Hoffman and Thompson deserve better.
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