Such a Sweet Film!~!
Author: Roxburyfunny123 January 2009
This was such a genuine film with a lot of heart. I loved the story line for one. It was not over the top or extremely dramatic. Not only with the script but I did not expect those performances from either one of the main actors. Dustin Hoffman who I within the last few years have discovered his genius and wonderful acting talent. His smile just lights up the screen and you feel so sad for his character because its like you want to fix everything for him because within 48 hours you see things for him fall dramatically.
Emma Thompson can do no wrong. Every film she does she plays her character to fullest whether it be a house wife, nanny, or crazy teacher she can do it all. This role for her seemed like it was a fun one and with a lot of heart. I especially love her line "Shall we walk" because I think to find someone who you can walk with and talk for hours and you don't care where you are going because you are so caught in the conversation that nothing else matters. That to me is so romantic and its not overly done, its simple and sweet.
All that was missing was a song from Benton Paul called I only see you at the wedding. That would have been so wonderful. The cast though small was great I especially loved all scenes with the mother because I seen her and several of the cast members in many films and television. The daughter was great and she is like me, I want to make sure I am not hurting anyone's feelings and that everyone is OK and happy. The end was perfect and it ended it simply and sweet. Just go see it and enjoy, I recommend for those who are in the movie spirit!~!
Author: ianlouisiana from United Kingdom
9 June 2009
*** This review may contain spoilers ***
World - Class athletes will talk about getting into "The Zone" a rarified state where they exist on another plane from their rivals.Where the extra scintilla of talent,the super - gene that gives them their greatness,suddenly comes into play and pushes them through onto a higher level of performance.Pele,Ali,Navratilova,di Maggio all had it.Husein Bolt has it.Miss Thompson moved into "The Zone" in the otherwise pedestrian "Love Actually",Mr Hoffman moved into "The Zone" in "Kramer vs Kramer".Rarely do two performers reach this height in the same movie,but,almost like a "folie a deux",they both succeed in this wonderful feat in "Last Chance Harvey".
Mr Hoffman with no apparent effort brings his character,jingle-writing frustrated jazz pianist Harvey Shine to life in all his pleasing ordinariness.Miss Thompson,a perhaps more complex character as middle - aged single woman Kate Walker,a walking bundle of vulnerability and stubborn diffidence. It's a sort of "meet - cute" movie that rises far above its potential. Pretty much a two - hander apart from a fine performance from Miss Eileen Atkins as Miss Thompson's needy mother,the movie is funny,charming and affecting.I shared the theatre today with about a dozen fellow pensioners,all of us taking advantage of Cineworld's "cheap" Tuesday afternoon showing.I only hope that the turnout isn't indicative of "Last Chance Harvey"'s cinematic fate because the movie deserves so much more.
You can really feel the tension and truth in this film. What a relief Hoffman and Thompson - an unlikely couple - should get together with this great script to produce an emotional roller-coaster. Thank you both. This really is my kind of film.
Having walked out of Terminator Salvation after an hour, for obvious reasons (okay, to spell it out: lack of plot and senseless action sequences), I was once again loosing faith in Hollywood with its animation madness. Didn't Dogme95 remind filmmakers about getting back to basics? Well, here's a film that does just that. Boy did this film hurt - especially if you actually have kids or have ever wanted them.
I would say this is the best of Hoffman's films, and a typically great performance from Thompson - who is allowed to really shine in this one. Neither of them are spring chickens but their acting is the reason why we still need experienced actors.
Author: Felix Yaroshevsky from Canada
25 January 2009
*** This review may contain spoilers ***
I was tempted to give this film nine stars, but then asked myself, "why?" Just because it doesn't have the pseudo-sophistication of the bodily-fluid ridden "Schenectady N.Y." or the techno virtuosity of "Benjamin Button"? Frankly, first made me nauseous and second bored. I walked out in the middle of the mindless, meaningless sequence of nonsensical scenes of the second one and only wished remembering the torture of the first that I'd done so then.
I decided to give Last Chance Harvey - this gem - a 10.
We meet two warm, kind (with some understandable bitterness), intelligent, sensitive (especially, of course, her) human beings in a mundane, Matrix-like sea of everyday life. There are no 'bad guys' in this film either. Everybody acts according to their 'Matrix scripts' - to do what they 'have to do': Marvin in the name of 'business interests'; Maggie to 'care for her daughter'; Susan in 'loyalty to her step-father and mother (who can make Harvey "feel like s&%t in 30 seconds)', etc..
Brian, at first, acts according to his script, as he and everybody else expects. He naturally shrinks back as soon as the truth of the matter is mentioned. Everybody is human, but our two heroes are, you could say, more human. Their 'scripts', actually are not scripts at all - just based on the way they really feel. They don't fit. But, the soul mates that they are, click with each other immediately. Yes - it was predictable. Harmony, paradoxically, is always predictable.
All of this was genuinely and skillfully scripted and directed by Joel Hopkins, who deserves as much credit as the leading couple. Both Hoffman and Thompson shine. Of course, the Oscars will go elsewhere. What else is new? There's no need to sing this film more praises. Go, see it. If you allow yourself to be open to the humanity of it, you'll have a chance to experience a dose of cathartic laughter. And a good cry.
Author: jspilsbu from United States
17 February 2010
Puleezzzeee create a sequel of "Last Chance Harvey"!!! I loved this movie!!! It struck me to the core. It was a beautiful love story about two courageous individuals who are comfortable in their own skins. They like themselves, and that makes the highest form of true love possible between them, because liking themselves allows them to be able to forget themselves, and to give of themselves to others. Please make Dustin Hoffman's character have a desire to marry Emma Thompson's character before he sleeps with her. Please allow both main protagonists greater depth of character as their love evolves and matures. It would be a movie I would both go to a theater to see, and will purchase a copy of. It would also be a movie that would be given as a Xmas stocking stuffer or birthday gift.
Author: clipmaker from United States
15 January 2012
*** This review may contain spoilers ***
Last Chance Harvey is a romantic story of a music writer who happens to travel to London for his daughter wedding. Now he is just out of place, being a divorcée and having to meet his ex-wife and her present husband among other relatives at the wedding, but it was his only daughter and he was doing this for her even though he feels he's not welcome and also tries to go back to New York to work on his new assignment and finds out he was replaced by a new team of music producers, and so he is now also out of job, finds that he can make fun of himself and also of the person near to him, just for fun, when the stranger is an airline host played by Emma Thompson the actress and she makes Harvey played by Dustin Hoffman to feel he has to apologize to her, and so they start talking and a relationship develops with a happy ending.
This is an exquisitely made film, perfect in every frame. In it, Dustin Hoffman gives the finest performance of his entire career. And Emma Thompson gives the finest performance of her career as well. These two pros work so well together on screen that you feel you are eavesdropping on something so acutely personal that you should creep away on tiptoe and not disturb them. It is almost impossible to watch this film and remember that it is a film. It is so powerful and convincing that you really believe you are there.
The film was both written and directed by Joel Hopkins, a relative newcomer as a British director. He is so brilliant that he should make lots and lots of movies and then when he has done that, he should make lots and lots more, and so on, ad infinitum. The film is nothing short of a total work of genius. It is extremely, agonizingly painful to watch the paralytic shyness, uncertainties, self-doubts, hesitations, hopelessness, and oppressed personalities of Hoffman and Thompson, both of them crushed in their own ways, as they tentatively find each other and struggle to learn to trust one another and overcome the fear of commitment.
This is a masterpiece of modern British cinema. It should win all the Oscars, but because it is not 'trendy', it will probably win none. Thank God, neither Hoffman nor Thompson has had plastic surgery. They still have their personalities and have not become identikit robotic immobilized faces. They have all their wrinkles and crinkles, they can show expression when they smile and frown, they are human. I think if I see another surgically altered Hollywood actor or actress I shall scream and scream and scream and scream. Then I shall run out into the street and pull off all my clothes, and rant like a loonie: 'Faces! Give us back faces! Down with the Zombies!'
But here we have faces aplenty: they are all the faces of all the moods and all the thoughts of the two lead characters. They have hundreds of faces, as they have hundreds of shades to their moods and their emotions. This is just as heart-rending an emotional drama as 'Brief Encounter' ever was, and Hopkins is every bit as creative and sensitive as David Lean. Really, we should all be queuing up to sign a book somewhere, certifying the classic status of this great work, and endorsing it for future generations. If Hoffman and Thompson had never made another movie in their lives, this one alone would serve to place them amongst the immortals.
Author: cestmoi from United States
30 March 2009
This is a really well written and touching script. Hoffman is still as good as ever...or better...than he was on Warrenton Street. He makes it all look very easy, and it ain't! Ms. Thompson is a marvelous player, as well, and would be difficult to fault. The father daughter story line is the propelling one, with Thompson the unlikely angel who brings it together. Her own mother-daughter relationship... neurotic, sad, and lonely mom forever on the phone for reassurance, a reach out and touch someone moment oft but believably repeated, and the dutiful daughter wanting to help but also filling her otherwise relationship bare life, also touches.
The loser aspect...in contemporary terms... the failed musician doing jingles and even at that on the knife' edge, is well handled and movingly acted by Hoffman.
Lighting Hoffman face in one scene was a perfect underlining of the sadness of the moment. (That might have been the only "self-conscious" art moment in a beautifully directed and filmed movie, a comment not a criticism) And making London seem so interesting was great. Shooting on the correct side of the river, choosing the locations, finding the most French plaza for the demi-proposal was great, giving London a touch of the great city across the drink.
Very good film-making, wonderful acting, terrific text.
Author: happipuppi13 from Phx. Arizona ("Arizona Smells Funny"!- Homer Simpson)
14 September 2010
*** This review may contain spoilers ***
I got a chance to view "L.C. Harvey" last night and the reviews didn't lie. (Either here at IMDb or on the DVD box).
It's been sometime since I watched a Dustin Hoffman movie and here,Dustin's playing a flawed individual whose shortcomings have affected the people in his life he's supposed to close with. He's put his career before his family,which resulted in him losing who he really is. This caused his divorce and estrangement from his daughter. The daughter now considers her step-father to be more Dad like than Harvey. Harvey's also becoming outmoded by modern technology as a jingle writer and may not be working too much longer.
Emma Thomspon's Kate Walker is a nearing middle age woman,who has only had one let down after another. Not just in dating but life as well. She lives in the same town as her Mother,who thinks the man next door is a killer. Kate gets set up on a blind date,only to have the man's friends show up and ruin it.
Harvey's trip to England for his daughter's wedding and Kate working in the air-terminal,set up the chance meeting between these two,obviously,sad individuals. Once they do meet,despite her annoyance with him at the start,they seem to spark naturally and have very unforced conversation with each-other. The funniest scene they share is going out to buy her a dress to wear at the wedding reception.
The movie,thankfully,avoids all the possible cliché's that come with this kind of story. We don't get Harvey & his daughter arguing and her saying the stock "I hate you" line or Harvey saying he did the best that he could,which he of course didn't.I didn't feel it was fair of her to make her step-dad the one to walk her down the aisle,instead of Harvey though.
HArvey & his ex-wife don't have a loud blow up,she just reminds him that at the time she married him she was young and he was much more fun to be with when they met. The classiest moment is when Harvey is able to make a small speech and toast the bride & groom,while at the same time apologizing for how things have been,without saying "I'm sorry".
The best thing of the movie itself is it's understated charm. There's no special effects,no non-stop action/violence and best of all ,it's just an enjoyable story about unfortunate things that happen in some peoples lives and how they deal with them afterwards. Once dealt with,one can only hope for the best later on.
Ten stars,simple as that. (END)
Author: Len9876 from United States
1 April 2009
Although I am not certain, I would strongly suggest that the script was especially written for Dustin Hoffman and Emma Thompson. Harvey Shine promises to dance his lady's socks off, and Harvey keeps his promise.
The performances are powerful and sensitive, and the storyline effectively deals with real-life issues. The script is anything, but boring, and the difficulty in establishing relationships is honestly portrayed.
This film is as much about real-life Dustin Hoffman, as it is about fictitious-character Harvey Shine. It is good that "The Graduate" has used his education and life experience wisely. "Rain Man" has learned how to smile through the clouds. He teaches us how to use our emotions to cry, laugh, and smile. No doubt, "Tootsie" helped Dustin and all of us to learn from our feelings. "Last Chance Harvey" is not only a 'feel-good' film, but it is one that can get, or keep us, on track.
It such a relief that one can see a film without blood, gore, sex, and violence. I can only hope that Hollywood will make more films like "Last Chance Harvey", and I rank the movie a 10 out of 10. I came out of this film feeling good about myself and the people all around me. It is not Harvey's, or Emma's, or our last chance. The sun still shines, and the world is still a wonderful place.
