User reviews

What can we say about Dustie Hoffman and Emma Thompson? Here are 2 of the best in the profession laying out roles of two disaffected people who encounter in their disparate desperation and find in themselves something to come to grips with who they are. The interesting thing, is that this is a plot line that could be a stinker if played out wrong. The whole story drips with sentiment wrought by the conflict of aging, adrift in meaningless careers and embellished by the idea of being "losers." The story line has no great leaps, little action and unfolds in a potentially boring setting and what saves it is the performance of these two great veterans who give the yin and yang of two different people who compliment each other. This is a great movie. Go see it.

On the face of it Last Chance Harvey, helmed by the virtually unknown English director Joel Hopkins, is a mere piece of frippery, a little tale of a chance encounter in an airport between a man and woman of a certain age on the rebound from disappointment, something we've seen dozens of times. But the masterful acting of Emma Thompson and Dustin Hoffman, and the restraint of a script that could be maudlin or cutesy but never is, make the film not only entertaining and watchable but even touched by moments of grace.

Harvey Shine (Hoffman) is a composer of TV jingles who may be out of work. When he goes London to attend his daughter's wedding, he learns she has chosen her stepfather, Brian, to give her away. Amid these humiliations Harvey runs into Kate Walker (Thompson), who works doing surveys of passengers passing through Heathrow.

Thompson is playing an old maid saddled with a mother (the great Aileen Atkins) worried about her "situation" and also suspicious of a Polish neighbor she thinks may be a new Jack the Ripper. She calls all the time. Harvey keeps getting calls from his New York agent, but they're never encouraging. This cell phone shtick is unoriginal wallpaper. None of the developments is thought provoking or surprising. But the film avoids pushing too hard and thus gains credibility, at least in the personalities. Liane Balaban, as Susan, Harvey's daughter and the bride, has a credible restraint and sweetness. She is decent to Harvey, even as she has cooperated in his virtual exclusion from her marriage celebration. Kathy Baker plays Jean, Harvey's ex-wife, with poise and elegance.

At the center is Hoffman. He never plays for bathos. He woos Kate with delicate humor. His sense of defeat is only partial. This may be his "last chance" both to be a presence at his daughter's nuptials and to find a woman who will care about him, but though the screenplay puts him out on a limb, it doesn't coat him in desperation. He takes taxis everywhere, and stays at a nice hotel. He conveys an aura of quiet pluck. His little smiles are never forced; he's good humored. Beyond that, Hoffman has moments of stillness more beautiful than any actor's fussy line readings.

I guess you could call this a bittersweet comedy. Despite a scene that verges on the maudlin when Harvey speaks at the wedding reception, the film's skill is in the way it averts all disasters. The adeptness with which the two principals stay away from ever pushing too hard is the essence of good film acting. Last Chance Harvey may not make a deep impression but that slight memory it leaves behind is a good one. It will do to while away an afternoon. With Dustin and Emma, one is in good hands. _________________

While Joel Hopkins' Last Chance Harvey does not break any new ground, it contains some very unusual features for a romantic comedy: lovers who are over fifty years old and estranged family members who treat each other with civility. The film is about second chances and, in this case, perhaps third or fourth chances, and reminds us that it is never too late to turn our lives around or to clean up past mistakes. Dustin Hoffman (who is 71) pursues Emma Thompson (who is 49 and a few inches taller than him) but the relationship neither feels awkward nor strained thanks to the magnificent performances by these accomplished actors who truly inhabit their characters.

Both Harvey Shine (Hoffman) and Kate Walker (Thompson) at this stage in their lives seem to be lost but carry on with determination. Harvey is a wannabe jazz pianist who has settled for work writing jingles for commercials but obviously feels that he has missed his calling. Divorced from his wife Jean (Kathy Baker) and estranged from his daughter Susan (Liane Balaban), Harvey is traveling to London to attend his daughter's wedding but dreads the reunion. Meanwhile, his boss (Richard Schiff) comments about the new young people coming into the company, presumably thinking they can improve on Harvey's performance. When Harvey tells his boss that he is going to London for the weekend for the marriage of his only daughter, he warns him that there will be consequences if he does not return on Monday.

When Harvey arrives at his hotel expecting to find the wedding party, he finds that everyone else is staying at a mansion rented by his daughter's wealthy stepfather Brian (James Brolin). Seething inside, Harvey still manages to show good cheer at the reception, that is, until he receives a double dose of bad news: Susan tells him that she is going to have Brian give her away and a phone call from his job tells him that he is being let go from his job. To perk up his spirits, after missing his flight back to JFK, Harvey meets Kate (Thompson) in the airport bar. Kate (who has never married) works for a statistics company interviewing arriving passengers on incoming flights at Heathrow and had been refused an interview by Harvey when he first arrived.

Both are disappointed in life, Kate's spirits being especially down after she was ignored during a blind date and created an excuse to leave early. The unlikely pair open up to each other, however, and begin a relationship based on mutual need. Their all-night walk around London saves them the awkwardness of having to go to a hotel together and gives the viewer a lovely montage of the city, their conversation only interrupted by phone calls from Kate's mother Maggie (Eileen Atkins) who has recently recovered from cancer and is paranoid about a new Polish neighbor.

Kate convinces Harvey to attend his daughter's wedding reception in a charming scene marred only by a clichéd montage of Kate trying on different gowns in the dress store. When Harvey brings Kate to the reception, he seems to have a new level of confidence and his wedding toast to his daughter is extremely touching. At this point, many things could go wrong but do not. As Andrew Sarris has pointed out, "In these times of institutionalized bad manners on screen and off, it is refreshing to see a movie smoothly returning to an age of courtesy and courtliness leavened by wit and genuine sincerity." While Last Chance Harvey will never be confused with great romantic comedy, it is heartfelt and sincere, and its message that people at all ages have the power to transform the quality of their lives left me with a smile.

Yes, it's one of those "nice" movies but Emma Thompson's presence alone raises the worthiness of this movie several notches. We believe everything we see in her wonderful complicated face and that's the hook that will carry you along, it certainly did me. Dustin Hoffman, is the unlikely romantic door that opens to Emma, poor girl. But she sees something in him that I, quite honestly, didn't. At the end of the day if it's okay with Emma, it's okay with me. There are a couple of marvelous moments but that's about it. Another element that helps us enormously to escape the predominant flatness is Eileen Atkins as Emma's mother. All in all I would recommend you to see it, preferably on a rainy Sunday afternoon.

Harvey Shine (Dustin Hoffman) is a New Yorker in London for his daughter's wedding. He writes advertising music and he's struggling. His ex-wife is long ago remarried, and his daughter is closer to her stepfather. Kate Walker (Emma Thompson) is an aging spinster working at Heathrow forced to endure blind dates. Kate and Harvey strikes up a conversation in an airport bar.

The story starts slow and really needs Harry to meet Kate. The 30 minutes at the start badly needs a good trim. The movie works best when the two veterans are together. Harvey does have a great relationship problem with his daughter. Other than that, the story is fairly thin, but it's still wonderful to see great actors work. If only they could write another 30 minutes of good dialog and have these guys weave their magic. Nevertheless, this is still a joy.

At its best, this rather slight 2008 melding of comedy and drama reminds me of Ulu Grosbard's bittersweet "Falling in Love" (1984) in which Robert DeNiro and Meryl Streep stumble into a romantic relationship constantly derailed by guilt and commuter train schedules. At its worst, this film - leisurely directed and written by Joel Hopkins - uses several well-worn cinematic conventions - including a familiar third-act plot device from a classic movie - and forces a predictable ending that is far from satisfying. On the upside, it certainly helps to have actors the caliber of Dustin Hoffman and Emma Thompson in the principal roles, although I have to admit I was not taken in by their characters' halting romance because the actors are simply not meshing in a convincing way. In fact, this movie ironically works better when the actors perform in separate scenes away from each other. The problem is that the elfin Hoffman just tries too hard to overcome Thompson's self-protective demeanor of disappointment.

The story focuses on Harvey Shine, a divorced jingle writer whose career seems to be waning in the face of more youthful talent. At the same time, his daughter Susan is getting married in England, so he is anxious to offset his professional disappointments with a family reunion he really needs. However, their estrangement turns out to be deeper than expected since Susan tells him that she has already asked her rugged, engaging stepfather to give her away at the wedding. When he concludes that it is he who has become the family outsider, he meets Kate Walker, an airport employee who has the thankless task of surveying passengers coming off their flights. She also happens to be a lonely spinster who lives near her paranoid mother and finds the prospect of another failed blind date excruciating. Kate and Harvey meet-cute at a Heathrow lounge at their lowest emotional points, and they start to bond over long walks along London's South Bank. She convinces him to go to Susan's reception, and he agrees only if Kate becomes his date. The rest of the plot follows the story arc you would expect.

In perhaps a conscious move, Hoffman seems to be channeling a bit of Benjamin Braddock's schlubby, obsessive nature in "The Graduate" over forty years later. He is at his best when we feel Harvey's rejection in isolation, but the assertive approach the 71-year-old actor takes in courting Kate is challenging to embrace. Thompson, on the other hand, is a pure joy as Kate because she plays against the grain of what could have been a victim character. She wears Kate's disappointment in such a convincingly objective manner that her moments of heartache attain greater resonance. Eileen Atkins and Kathy Baker have just a few scenes to bring their characters to life, Kate's dotty mother and Harvey's still-resentful ex-wife, respectively. London looks pretty inviting thanks to John de Borman's crisp cinematography, though Dickon Hinchliffe's tinkling music punctuates the proceedings excessively. The 2009 DVD contains a nice audio commentary track with Hoffman (recorded separately), Hopkins and a particularly acerbic Thompson. The sixteen-minute featurette reflects the same personalities in a standard making-of format, although both this and the theatrical trailer give away too much of the plot.

I am absolutely shocked to see a modern day movie made that's devoid of special effects; explosions; fast cut editing; no foul language; no nudity; no vicious killings; no villains; no CGI. This movie was so refreshing for what it is. Tells a coherent story with no "shock ending", with actors who can ACT and not run around and look stunning with all kinds of make-up and fancy costumes. Also nice to see a movie made for ADULTS and not tweens or kiddies. Of course it was a box office dud, but who cares. Just wish more movies of this ilk are made and if only seen by a few people who love movies the way movies were meant to be made. Story, direction, acting and nice locales. Dustin Hoffman and Emma Thompson make a terrific team and would like to see them in a film again, not in tiny character parts, but as leads such as this.

Last Chance Harvey (2008)

**** (out of 4)

Dustin Hoffman plays Harvey Shine, a man on his way to London for his daughter's wedding but at home facing problems with his job. When he lands in London he learns that his daughter doesn't want him walking her down the aisle. Hurt, he goes to the airport bar where he meets a woman (Emma Thompson) also facing her own share of problems. The two hit it off and head out for the night hoping they can find comfort in each other. I wasn't sure what to expect walking into this movie but it was certainly very worthwhile and I must admit that this was one of the most memorable movies of 2008. The movie isn't brilliant but I don't think it was trying to be. The movie doesn't have a lot to say about relationships nor is it trying to be deep or thoughtful. The movie just tries to be entertaining and lets two great actors do their thing and the end result is something very moving, touching and at times funny. I was really surprised at how depressing the movie was but the screenplay allows both characters, and for that matter the viewer, to hit rock bottom in depression because the eventual climb up. I give screenwriter/director Hopkins a lot of credit for trying to stay as real as possible without trying to go over the top with any of its subject matter. To me the film felt very real and that's hard to find these days especially for a romantic comedy. Hoffman, one of our greatest character actors, does a masterful job here and really turns in his most memorable performance in several years. It was so much pleasure seeing Hoffman work this character because of the charm and pain he brings to the role. I've always found Hoffman to be a great comic actor and working with charm is a strong suit for him and that's on full display here. That smile of his mixed with his swooning ways were great to watch and he really nails it. The depressing scenes are brilliantly done as well with Hoffman replying a lot on facial gestures and not words. Many of these depressing scenes are done without words so Hoffman must rely on other emotions. Thompson is just as good and keeps up with Hoffman making the two the perfect couple that you really want to see together. Thompson's issues in the film are a lot different than Hoffman's but she too is able to be charming, funny and sad as well. Kathy Baker, James Brolin and Richard Schiff are all very good in their supporting roles. Again, this is the type of film that just lets the actors do their thing and to me it really comes off excellent in the end. I didn't like what happened to Hoffman's character towards the end as I felt the movie should have ended the scene earlier but this is just a minor issue. Seeing Hoffman and Thompson work their magic was great fun even though the more depressing scenes. It's a shame to see this movie not doing so well at the box office but it's true people enjoy more lightweight stuff. Oh well, as it's really their loss.

I liked it because of the realism in the performances and the portrayal of 2 lonely people meeting and agreeing to keep each other company, and then realising that they like each other. It made me think about how people meet in real life, and there are all sorts of ways. If someone is really seeking a friend, they can find one - that is the message for me. Dustin Hoffman is always charming and Emma Thompson is wonderful at showing real emotion in a way that draws the viewer in. I was crying at one point, because of the poignancy of what was happening, even though it was a simple plot and appeared to be predictable. The detail of what happened was unexpected and it was worth seeing, especially if you are a bit older and single! There is a lot of resonance there and a lot of entertainment value.

This movie is about a socially awkward American man and British woman who meet in London, get to like one another and may have a future together. The plot has been done a zillion times. I pretty much knew what was going to happen twenty minutes into the film. What saves the film from being one huge predictable snooze fest is that the author is clever enough not to fall into too many clichés so things seem possible if not probable. And there is the excellent casting of Dustin Hoffman and Emma Thompson. Their characters are quirky enough to be believable and both are very sympathetic. And there's no silly Hollywood ending with rockets bursting and doves flying into the sunset. There's a chance they might make it as a couple despite differences in age, culture and countries or they might be in for a huge disappointment and hurt--something both have known in their lives.

If you're expecting a movie that will entertain, be free of gratuitous sex scenes and violence with a charming backdrop of London landmarks, then this film is for you.

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!~!

I'm not really in the habit of investigating the astrological qualities of directors, but when I checked IMDb's bio for writer/director Joel Hopkins, I immediately noticed it says he's a Virgo. "Ahhh," I said knowingly and leaned back, sipping on a chalice of cherry kool aid which I pretended was the blood of my enemies. I'm a scorpio.

The stereotypical male Virgo qualities read like a description of the main character and the film's tone in general: "Quiet, undemonstrative and introvert. Gentle, helpful and sympathetic by nature, the Virgo men often face criticism for being finicky as they are very particular about how they want things to be."

"Last Chance Harvey" is a quiet, undemonstrative and introverted film with a gentleness and precise delivery. It's the story of a couple of "5th wheels" (played by Dustin Hoffman & Emma Thompson) who suffer the daily indignity of slowly realizing that they don't fit in anywhere. Dustin's character is a divorced, failed father who has been squeezed out of his family by a more capable new step father in the mix. He is a TV composer by trade, but his archaic, old school approach has become obsolete in light of the snappier, edgier kids taking over the industry. He doesn't seem to have any friends or any life at all. Emma plays a similar character; she has a job as a survey taker at the airport where every day she is ignored or brushed aside by the thousands of people with more important schedules. She's single, awkward, cynical, and is the kind of person who ends up on dates with men who don't notice when she leaves.

The movie asks the question: do these people have what it takes to break out of their rut? Or will they forever be hopeless schleps feeling sorry for themselves and embracing obscurity? It's obvious what they should do, but will they do it? And that's the mystery that makes this an interesting and original romcom.

Also there's the fact that there aren't a whole lot of romcoms about late-40 and 50-something characters, let alone with great actors like this, so that itself is a novelty.

Another bonus is some very nice London scenery. Is it me, or do all romcoms happen in New York City or LA these days? London, there's a refreshing change. And it was nice (albeit a little unrealistic) to see bright, sunny days in every shot, really highlighting the urban charm.

So, like the Virgo description, there's not a lot of flashy drama, pizazz, car chases and crazy hijinks in this film. The humor is low key and "British" (for example, an ongoing subplot is Emma's cloistered mother who is convinced that their new neighbor is a creepy serial killer, so she stands at the window staring at him all day). And the "conflict" in Dustin & Emma's relationship isn't any great plot twist but rather the simple question of whether they're so entrenched in misery that they'll sabotage their own chance for happiness.

Dustin & Emma displayed a great on-screen chemistry, not unlike they briefly had (just 1 scene) in the excellent film "Stranger than Fiction" a few years earlier. In fact, after seeing this movie I had to google if they were an item in real life. Alas, apparently not.

In the end it was nothing in particular that made this an enjoyable film, but rather it was all the little exceptional qualities like the ones I've mentioned that made this a winner. If you like this sort of stuff.

If, on the other hand, you find yourself wanting a somewhat more spontaneous, impetuous, explosive movie to watch, check out an Aries director like Quentin Tarantino.

It's going to be a stretch for John Q. American to identify with Harvey Shine. He's a New York musician whose youthful ambition was to play jazz piano professionally, but his career has instead found him writing jingles for television ads. Which brings in plenty of money and sets up his family in that New York-to-London artistic social strata, where many of the dependents on such wealth regard it as a birthright... to go to the right schools, to have the right relationships, to know the right people, to be seen in the right society pages, and so on.

Harvey's wife Jean (Kathy Baker) and daughter Susan (Liane Balaban) do an excellent job of pegging out the superficiality meter... though toward the end of the movie they tone it down some.

...

For my complete review of this movie and for other movie and book reviews, please visit my site TheCoffeeCoaster.com.

Brian Wright Copyright 2009

...at first sigh. and not only. because it is the expected love story film. bitter, amusing, realistic, with few crumbs of fairy tale, fascinating for the lead actors, escaping from many cliches and using part of the most familiar from them, proposing a mature romance, a real rare virtue among the romantic films of the last decades, being more than a film with Emma Thompson and Dustin Hoffman , elegant, nostalgic, familiar and the right choice for middle age public. so, just perfect. sure, in a special sense.

I liked Emma Thompson before seeing "Last Chance Harvey," but while watching this wretched little botch of a "film," I really came to love Emma Thompson. That she could glimmer like the sun in such a waste of celluloid is proof that she is a gift to the film-goer.

Aside from Thompson's sunny, intelligent, witty and poignant performance, this movie is a dreadful waste. Even Dustin Hoffman, who I thought could NEVER bore me, is all but invisible here in a thankless, limp, derivative, pointless, script that would have to rise up several notches to reach "Lifeline TV movie" quality.

"Last Chance Harvey" is meant to be a romantic comedy. If, at any point in the movie, Dustin Hoffman's Harvey character suddenly whipped out a knife and stabbed Kate (Emma Thompson) to death, and it was revealed that the entire time he was a crazed stalker who has murdered women in order to steal their life savings, that scene would have fit beautifully with everything that had gone before. The film is that devoid of romance, that devoid of comedy, that devoid of characterization. All we know about Harvey is that he drinks too much, and he is a social and economic loser who has failed his wife, his daughter, and his boss. Thompson endures his awkward insistence on taking her time, but why? Nothing is believable, nothing is at stake, nothing happens.

I won't tell you how it ends, but I can say that I kept urging Emma Thompson's character to walk away from Harvey, permanently.

This is all, obviously, the fault of the director and screenwriter, whose name I won't even mention here. I don't want to hurt anyone's feelings. I just want to warn viewers away from this movie.

Some viewers argue that even though the movie is not that good, older people should go see it, because Hoffman is 71 and Thompson is 49. Baloney. Why should audiences accept shlocky, inept, insipid, lifeless movies just because they are older? Older audiences deserve just as much craft, art, mystery, profundity, dollars visibly splayed on screen as any teenage male comic book action hero fan.

"Last Chance Harvey" is the movie industry saying to older people: "Look. We know you aren't chomping at the bit to see the latest Batman or teen gross out comedy. We know you are desperate. We know that once we plunk Hoffman and Thompson into this movie, and put them both in London, you'll come see it. So don't expect a script, or a plot, or any direction, or production values, either, other than costuming Hoffman and Thompson in matching trench coats."

I would describe this movie as a drama aimed for the older crowd. It's basically about 2 lonely older people whom have a chance encounter, and they both feel a connection and have hope they can become a couple. Harvey has come to London from America to see his daughter get married. He doesn't have a close relationship with her and only plans to stay for the ceremony then leave. Well, he misses his flight and is informed by his boss he's been let go. So, he meets Kate at a bar in the airport. They 2 talk and he follows her around the rest of the day. She insists he goes back to his daughter's wedding reception. He says he'll go if she will come. The 2 have a great time. He gets a call saying he has his job back, but turns his boss down. Kate is a reason for him to stay in London, and the 2 have a happy ending with hope of a future together.

Thompson and Hoffman were OK together, but he is a little old for her. And their whole meeting was a little too fairy tailish, but it's Hollywood.

FINAL VERDICT: It was a sweet movie with a happy ending. I recommend it if you want to see a romance film.