With A Friend Like Harry
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Movie Reviews of With A Friend Like Harry
Movie Review: No one wants a friend like Harry, trust me
Summary: 5 Stars
This movie is a great thriller!
When a man, his wife and daughters go on summer holiday, a man meets an old high school classmate, Harry, and a surprising thriller ensues.
Not a movie for the whole family, but definitely a very interesting film if you run into it at the video store or if you like french film.
I give it 5 stars because it is eery and laid out very well. If you enjoy thrillers, you MUST pick this up!
Movie Review: .. who needs enemies?
Summary: 5 Stars
Clearly released in the USA with a different title (in the UK it's "Harry, he's here to help"), this film was the best French film of 2000. The blackest of comedies, it's understated, stylish, and brilliant. What's it about? If one begins to explain the plot, one will spoil the film. Just buy it and be completely absorbed for a couple of hours. Then thank your lucky stars that you don't know Harry, or anyone like him. Or do you...?Movie Review: Intelligent Thrills
Summary: 5 Stars
Short and sweet. If you need typical hollywood over-acting, over-explaining and musical cues to tell you what to think and how to feel throughout a film, then this is not the film for you. If you can be entertained without the filmmaker holding your hand, then "With a Friend Like Harry" is not to be missed! Think "David Lynch without the psuedo-intellectual nonsense" or "Alfred Hitchcock without the melodrama."Movie Review: Enjoyable film
Summary: 5 Stars
This film is worth the price of the DVD or the VHS. It is clever, very French, and fun. It is nice to get away from the Hollywood scence from time to time, but this one gets away while amusing us.Movie Review: Intense, Polanski-like thriller almost a gem.
Summary: 4 Stars
With a Friend Like Harry takes quite a while to reveal itself. It's establishing a tone and the relationships of those you are going to be involved with. The film has a lot in common withHitchcock in how it takes its time (like say Psycho did for instance) in deciding to tell you what is going on. When you start realizing what is going on... the suspense starts to increase. I was ahead of this film through most of its running time, but that worked in terms of building suspense as well because the characters are ones you are interested in and care about.
I'm purposely not going to tell you much about the film. In terms of re-counting plot synopsis' there's not a great deal to this story of a married couple who bump into a helpful stranger and his wife, a stranger who had gone to high school with the husband. He's odd, but seems friendly and reveals himself to be very quirky but seemingly friendly. There's wonderful details and ironies to be discovered (perhaps on your second viewing) within this film about it's characters. Gee a film where you are actually interested in the characters--imagine that. It slowly builds And reveals and has a few tricks up its sleeve. The film is character based and does not rely on Any over the top type set pieces. You might say it's quiet that way. Quiet in the way an early Polanski film like Cul de Sac was. The tension builds, slowly and methodical until you're more than ready for almost anything.
Direct Dominik Moll cannily manipulates the audiences in how he places his actors and uses his camera. He captures the tensions of a normal life with an accuracy that rings so true you'll identify at least in part with Michel, (Laurent Lucas), and his wife, Claire (Mathilde Seigner, sister of actress Emmanuelle Seigner) and their 3 children.
Michel is a very modern and updated version of the hen-pecked husband. We'll come to realize that in his effort to be 'fair' and in trying to please others, Michael has completely lost himself. He's buried his dreams and lets others use him as a doormat. His children, his wife and his parents have all played a part in overwhelming him and when he has a few spare moments to think about what has happened he resents the way his life has become something not his own.
Harry (Sergi Lopez) bumps into Michael in a roadside restroom and recognizes him. They went to school together didn't they? When Michel and Claire's car breaks down, Harry and his rather vacant but sexy girlfriend, Plum (Sophie Guillemin) offer them assistance. Thus begins what at first seems like an updated variation of The Man Who Came To Dinner as siphoned through one of those Pacific Heights, Single White Female, Or The Hand that Rocks the Cradle films. Most of those tried to mimic Hitchcock with mixed to poor results.
This film however has as much in common with Hitchcock as it does with an early Polanski effort such as Cul de Sac. This is a good thing. On the surface most of the characters seem Average, but then we begin to peel off the layers. The film is pretty easy to predict but there are twists that work quite well. For the most part the twists are believable and do not de-rail the film into some kind of slasher film histironics as often happens with films in this genre.
The acting is all top-notch and the situations build convincingly. What may be difficult to fully accept are the motivations driving Harry to insist on being Michael's friend. Perhaps an extra layer could have been revealed to better convince us, Harry has reasons we can almost identify with for doing some of the things he tries to do. I can make up (in my mind) a few elements of a back-story to make it work very well indeed.... But it would have been nice if the script-writer had added another layer, and put it on the screen. Some are going to find the film strains credibility to some degree and it won't connect with them and be as effective as it could have been.. The characters in this film I'm happy to say don't seem to be used merely as convenient devices for a clever stylish film. They act, sound and behave as normal people do. You don't see this very much in the movies anymore.
NOTE:
The film is absolutely destroyed if you watch the dubbed in English version of the film. The voices who do the dubbing are poor and have terrible phony inflections that utterly ruin the tone, texture and mood the film creates. I don't care how lazy you are feeling, you are doing yourself and the filmmakers are real dis-favor by watching the English dubbed version of the film. Watch it in French, the subtitles are easy to read and any effort you might put forth by doing so is well worth it. After you've seen the film if you want to go check out how awful the dub version is, go right ahead. You'll see within a few minutes what I'm talking about and I hope you'll wait until after you see the film the first time before checking the dubbed version out.
DVD STUFF
With A Friend Like Harry is presented in an anamorphic 2.35:1 widescreen aspect ratio, and the transfer is very well done. The flesh tones seem to be slightly on the orange side but it's done on purpose and reminds one of the older 50's type of color films such as Vertigo or Rear Window. The colors are slightly over-saturated and tend to bleed slightly but the black levels are very strong and everything appears very clear and bright. I notice very little grain, dirt, dust of scratches on the print used for the transfer.
Both the French and awful English soundtracks are presented in full Dolby Digital 5.1. Stick with the French soundtrack and read the subtitles.
An impressive job has been done on this DVD.
Only three theatrical trailers are your extra features.
Christopher Jarmick, is the author of The Glass Cocoon with Serena F. Holder a critically acclaimed, steamy suspense thriller.