Review: Last Chance Harvey

Review: Last Chance Harvey

Rating: **

Nonna's Rating: $

Rotten Tomatoes: 69%

Ironically enough, here's a movie I really wanted to like and recommend -- but I can't. Dustin Hoffman and Emma Thompson do an amazing job with an incredibly mediocre, trite, derivative script, but they can't pull off a miracle. I groaned audibly when Hoffman's character was prevented by circumstances beyond his control from showing up at their "Affair-To-Remember"-type rendezvous.

One insurmoutable problem in the film is that I sensed no chemistry between the soon-to-be-70 Hoffman and the soon-to-be-50 Thompson. But I don't fault the actors. The script calls for Thompson's character to fear emotional entanglements, to always withdraw from intimacy. Hoffman's character isn't exactly a relationship builder either.

Nevertheless, Hoffman especially still manages to have a few moments in which he takes this mediocre material and makes it soar.

Nonna's Ratings:

$$$$ = Worth paying the Friday evening price
$$$= Worth paying the Matinee price
$$= Worth a rental
$ = Wait for cable
# = Skip it