Wild About Harry

What a pleasure this was. A well written, well crafted piece of black comedy which demonstrates the fact that a fine story and emotive acting can make up for a lack of big budget sets and effects. Filmed on location (with good effect) in Northern Ireland, 'Wild About Harry' tells the tale of Harry McKee, an aging lothario who combines his job as a TV chef with a life of drunken parties and seducing his female fans. As you would imagine, this does not bode well for his marriage to long suffering wife Ruth, who has set divorce proceedings in motion. Before the hearing though, Harry gets attacked by thugs and ends up in a coma.

When he awakes, he has 'lost' 25 years of memory and thinks he is an 18 year old, clean living, boy with his whole life ahead of him. What follows is a keenly observed story of how life can sometimes give you a second chance to repair any mistakes you've made. 'Wild About Harry' is based on a book by superb local author Colin Bateman, and anyone who has read any of his work will know that there are plenty of colourful characters, situations and lines to enjoy. We need more films like this to refresh the soul from the usual Hollywood pap !

Black comedy about a hard-drinking/smoking/womanising Irish TV chef who loses his memory when on the brink of divorce. Harry is a mix of male TV chefs from Graham Kerr to Keith Floyd and looks a hell of a lot like Patrick, the Irish Anglia TV chef.

This is a well-constructed film, funny without being hilarious, moving without being too syrupy.

Brendan Gleeson play this part so well that it's hard to imagine anyone else doing it.

Amanda Donahoe is excellent in a different role for her.

George Wendt as a TV producer is George Wendt - a delight to watch (please can we see more of him).

Nothing groundbreaking, just good entertainment.

This is a wonderful film, beautifully, filmed, acted and directed. Just buy it, and you will have a film that you can watch time and time again. A story mixing comedy, tragedy, and insight, not letting each take anything away from the other. One of the best films I have seen in a long time.

This was a very good film. The humor is British which takes a bit of adjusting to but Gleeson's performance was perfect. He demonstrates that he can hold down a lead part while not necessarily fitting a Hollywood mold. The overall plot was good. The Gleeson character was a total jerk and as a result, he was surrounded by people that hated him thoroughly. Through a tragic injury, he has to start all over and has a very hard time figuring out why everyone around him is such a jerk to HIM, not realizing that he was living in a world of relationships that he built (or destroyed). From there, Harry has to start all over and work through the many difficulties/consequences of his previous life. Gleeson is brilliant, I really had to root for him the whole time. If this were available on DVD I would probably buy it.

The idea of amnesia offering you a chance to rebuild your life has been explored in films such as 'Amateur' and 'The Red Squirrel', and is also the subject of this movie. I'm not sure how realistic the medical symptoms are in any of these movies, but it makes for a nice premise, and the take here is particularly ingenious: a famous but awful man loses his memories of his entire married life just as his wife is about to (quite deservedly) divorce him. Unfortunately, although this is a sprightly movie, it's also a silly one, and most of its conceits are paper-thin. It's still fun to watch, though, in spite of its lightweight build.