Last Chance Harvey Review
Emma Thompson and Dustin Hoffman in the Best Chance of a Good Movie
Jan 17, 2009
This is an entertaining and enlightening movie. It has its flaws, but it is nonetheless of excellent quality.
The Plot
Harvey Shine (Dustin Hoffman) is an aging jingle writer who finds himself in danger of losing his job on the very weekend that his only daughter is getting married. Although increasingly discontent with how the nature of his job has changed over the years, as he journeys from New York to London for the wedding, Harvey is distracted by the worry of becoming unemployed.
Meanwhile, Kate Walker (Emma Thompson) is busy caring for her mother Maggie (Eileen Atkins), who has become bored and dizzy since her husband ran out on her for his secretary. Maggie occupies her time trying to find her middle-aged daughter a date, Kate simply tries to find a way for her own time to be less occupied.
While taking surveys at Heathrow, Kate first meets Harvey, who after their very brief meeting, rushes to his hotel, where he gradually learns that he has been increasingly phased out of the proceedings of his daughter’s wedding.
Simultaneously, Kate dubiously agrees to go on a blind date, on which she soon comes to feel lost in the crowd. With both main characters individually feeling alone and saddened, their lives begin to decline further in the course of a mutually disheartening day and a half.
By chance, each are in the same airport restaurant, when Harvey recognizes Kate as the woman who the day before attempted to ask him the questions of a survey. Desperate for human conversation, Harvey begins to speak to an understandably puzzled Kate, but slowly the two find themselves enjoying the company of each other.
The Characters
The greatest strength of this movie is that each of the characters is empathetic in various ways. Rather than focusing on melodrama or cheap comedy, the characters successfully motivate an honest story of realistic and recognizable thoughts and feelings.
The Cast
The performances of this movie are very well acted. Emma Thompson successfully and instantaneously obtains audience attention and interest. Her facial expressions, body language, and speech combine to quickly convey, both visually and verbally, the dimensions of her character’s personality. Dustin Hoffman plays his character with more dead-pain physical expressions, but, in a different way, he also provides the audience with a good understanding of the sides of his character.
The supporting cast is strong, with many of the well-performed parts offering the audience useful and elaborating information. Eileen Atkins, provides both comic relief and sincerity as Kate’s mother Maggie, and Liane Balaban brilliantly portrays Harvey’s daughter Susan.
The role of Susan requires a difficult balance, and Balaban successfully shows Susan to be both mature and vulnerable. The character could easily have gone wrong, but instead, through Balaban’s subtleness, the audience is able to understand both the sadness and sweetness of the likeable and disappointed daughter.
The Filming, Direction, and Soundtrack
The writer and director Joel Hopkins has created and constructed a well crafted and enjoyable movie of substance.
The information of the plot and personalities are well portrayed by the performers, who are well assisted by the excellent photography. The visual shots provide another means of offering the audience information about the inner unspoken thoughts and feelings of the characters.
The background music of the soundtrack also combines with the sights of the movie to set the mood and atmosphere of the calm and yet well paced film.
Criticism
Although the film starts out well, nearing the end, the plot only begins to run the risk of becoming trivial drama or cliché feel-good romance. There are also certain details of the events which may seem forced or contrived, but overall this is a sharp storytelling. It is witty, truthful, and enthralling.
To the credit of the movie, it tells the story of believable individuals with concerns and chances.
The tone of the gradually revealed story may be the sort of thing which cannot be watched repeatedly in close succession, but the movie is enjoyable from beginning to end.
