| Rating: | ★★★★ |
| Category: | Movies |
| Genre: | Romantic Comedy |
One of the more enjoyable romantic comedies I've seen in quite a while, "Last Chance Harvey" is worth a look unless you really dislike one or both performers--really, really a lot.
It features the very smart and pretty Emma Thompson and Dustin Hoffman as two people out-of-sorts in their romantic and professional lives who keep bumping into each other through fate or kismet or script necessity. He's a television commerical jingle writer who always wanted to be a jazz pianist but wasn't quite good enough. And Thompson plays a lady named Kate who's got a boring job at Heathrow Airport surveying opinions for some research company who'd really rather be in Spain writing her novel. (Well, who wouldn't?) He's got a daughter getting married who makes him feel like a fifth wheel, and she just had a blind date with the most inconsiderate man in London.
There is definite chemistry between these two performers and, despite a pronounced age difference, they come emotionally and intellectually well-matched as a couple. The movie gives us lots of time to spend with each actor before their characters meet up and start dancing about seeing if they might have at least a brief good time together. No, it's not "Brief Encounter" and all, but its an engaging film about mature people who aren't neurotic or goofy for the sake of one-liners, but actually seem like real people. A nice 100 minutes at your local cinema as far as I'm concerned.
PS--They do pretty well together in interviews,too. (see below)
