Last Chance Harvey

Critics have been divided on this one, some calling it an inconsequential waste of talented actors, others loving the fact that it takes older people and looks at the possibility of them falling in love in an unashamedly romantic way. I’m firmly with the latter camp. Last Chance Harvey is a refreshing change to see two people getting on in years who can still flirt and are game enough to grab at opportunities life throws them.

Two fine performers propel the film and the chemistry between their characters is tremendous. Hoffman is, of course, one of his era’s finest actors, and whilst his glory days may be behind him, his interpretation of Harvey brings out every nuance of this infuriating but sympathetic man. There are many scenes early on in which Harvey, an outsider at his own daughter’s wedding, manages to make so many social gaffes, and yet we feel for him, especially when Brian (James Brolin), Susan’s stepfather, is chosen to give away the bride. Harvey’s vulnerability, combined with his desperate and haunting awareness that everything is slipping by him, is something so many of us of a certain age can relate to. Clever use of the camera reinforces Harvey’s aloneness, such as the scene in which we see his tiny figure from a distance, staring out of the airport window. Many of the humiliations he endures would break a person’s spirit, and yet the man’s inner courage and intelligence carry him through, along with the uplifting way in which meeting with Kate brings out the positive energy within him.

His perfect foil, Kate, is at times brittle, berating herself for being a bitch, but equally our hearts bleed for her as she is set up for a blind date by colleagues, only to have the man in question meet younger friends and virtually ignore her. She is guarded, afraid of opening up to love, but when Harvey asks her to lunch with him and she hears true revelations from him, some honest and self-deprecating, as opposed to pick-up lines, she starts to soften. Scenes of them talking and walking along the Thames are almost Parisian in their soft romantic quality, but fortunately they never cross over into mawkish sentimentality. The dialogue is witty, mature and believable.

The plot gets a little predictable towards the end, with a scheduled meeting being thwarted by fate, and we feel, yes, we’ve seen this before. Nevertheless there is a freshness to the story that is no doubt thanks to these two tremendous actors speaking to us of real life, not the usual perfect twenty-something people who feel love is their exclusive province and who populate our screens in never-ending supply. Watch out for the cute sub-plot involving Kate’s sticky-beak paranoid mother and the next door neighbour that also makes for a warm fuzzy feeling in this really lovely film.

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