Last Chance Harvey (***)

Directed by: Joel Hopkins
Starring: Dustin Hoffman, Emma Thompson, Eileen Atkins, Kathy Baker, James Brolin, Liane Balaban, Richard Schiff
Seen: October 15th 2009

*** Out of ****

Last Chance Harvey is a strange little tale in that it’s a love story between two normal people. The interactions between the two are real in every possible way, there is no fakery at play here. From beginning to end it’s all believable, and beautiful. Harvey Shine (Hoffman) writes jingles for TV adverts in New York and is pretty good at what he does, even though his superiors don’t value him appropriately and his actual dream was to become a jazz pianist. He does not believe himself to be good enough though, so he never really got into it. He can play, he just doesn’t really take it up the necessary level or two. His daughter is about to get married in London, and despite having some troubles with his boss Marvin (Schiff), he leaves New York to go to the wedding.

Kate (Thompson) is a single woman living on her own, hounded by her mother, whom she loves very much. She is employed at Heathrow airport, doing surveys on passengers asking them some questions on arrival. Her mother constantly calls her, if for nothing more than to simply hear her daughter’s voice. I don’t really see the value of adding the entire Kate’s mother storyline, as in my mind it has not much to do with the actual story.

At Heathrow airport Harvey is approached by Kate, but he brusquely waves her aside, tired from his flight and not in the mood to communicate. He realises that while he’s booked into a hotel, the rest of the family all live together in a large guest house specifically rented for the occasion. He pretty much only drives in for the big gatherings, and the first is dinner with family and friends. Kate’s friends (co-workers) set her up on a date by inviting her and the guy and running away halfway through the evening. Her supposed date meets some of his friends, and they join their table. The two scenes are intercut, showing how both Harvey and Kate are effectively shoved to the edge of conversation, not really involved.

Harvey’s ex-wife, Jean (Baker) didn’t bother to make place for him, rather favouring her new husband, Brian (Brolin). Harvey still feels a deep connection with his daughter Susan (Balaban), but acknowledges the fact that they’ve grown apart: she even asks him if Brian can give her away at the wedding instead of him. Now the people aren’t mean spirited at all, they are very civilised in fact, they’re just not very considerate of Harvey, who plans on missing the reception to fly back to New York after the wedding to not mess up his last chance to keep his job. He gets stuck in traffic, misses his flight, loses his job, and ends up next to Kate in an airport coffee shop. They start talking, and Harvey tags himself onto Kate wherever she goes. The two find a connection point, and Kate convinces Harvey to go to the reception, with Harvey convincing Kate to tag along.

The two enjoy the wedding, and I urge you to look out for how beautifully Harvey asserts himself at the reception. Harvey fixes a lot of things in his life during the movie, but in essence this film is about Harvey and Kate meeting, getting to know each other, and eventually falling for each other, Their walk around London, their whole conversation in fact, makes up the bulk of the movie. It doesn’t happen smoothly, but it happens gracefully, Kate has reservations, Harvey is impulsive, Kate is apprehensive and somewhat prone to self-sabotage, Harvey is irrepressible. This is a special little movie about two real people finding each other gapping the Atlantic, and it leaves a warm glow in the heart.