Who Is Harry Kellerman and Why Is He Saying Those Terrible Things About Me?

This is a difficult movie, but worth staying with if you like fully developed characters, emotional depth and you don't mind something outside the normal linear Hollywood story telling format. Dustin Hoffman gives a fine nuanced performance and Barbara Harris is wonderful as a vulnerable woman all too aware that she has lost her youth. Her performance is touching and every moment she is on screen shines with her unique brilliance.

Despite its nudging, rambling title and Dustin Hoffman's mildly hippie appearance, "Who Is Harry Kellerman..." is a rather old-fashioned quest for one man seeking the Meaning of Life, which screenwriter Herb Gardner sees as being undermined by the inevitability of death. There are no pretenses here towards embracing a pseudo-hip scenario, and the lack of modish overtones keeps the film relevant and fresh. Hoffman plays an East Coast songwriter, currently being hailed by Time magazine as a prophet, who sees nothing meaningful in his existence, harkening back on his ordinary boyhood in order to make peace with the present. Accentuated by bursts of rock music, and defined by little bits of mordant truth, the film blessedly isn't a silly phantasmagoria, although some may see all this as a con--written by somebody who is out of step with the times (Gardner wrote the coy "A Thousand Clowns" after all). Yet, the movie manages a melancholic, sobering, almost disenfranchised tone, with director Ulu Grosbard mostly interested in revealing something tangible through his characters. Hoffman's Georgie Soloway can't enjoy living without relating it to dying, and so has suicidal flights-of-fancy, paranoiac personal dramas, and surreal sessions with a Viennese analyst. It's a good role for the star, while Oscar-nominated Barbara Harris is wonderful in the small part of a struggling actress who's still in love with 1957. It takes a while to get into the movie's groove, but there are worthwhile thoughts here, helped immeasurably by Victor Kemper's non-fussy cinematography and Grosbard's deep connection with the material. **1/2 from ****

Georgie Soloway (Dustin Hoffman) is a Bob Dylan-esquire folk singer whose neurosis has sent him into drug addiction. He finds it hard to hold relationships for two reasons: 1) his own nature and 2) someone named Harry Kellerman keeps undermining his relationships.

"Who Is Harry Kellerman and Why Is He Saying Those Terrible Things About Me?" is one of those movies where you're never sure about what you're seeing on the screen. Is it real or is it his imagination? And what about Harry Kellerman? Either way, it's a good look at how a mixture of neurosis and drugs can drive a person over the edge. Georgie finds that out to the extreme. Not exactly a masterpiece, but worth seeing.

If there were an award for "best opening credits," this movie would be my pick to win, with its quirky fantasy scene accompanied by Dr. Hook & the Medicine Show's marvelous "Last Morning."

The mix of fantasy and flashback without explanation may turn off some viewers, as may the slow pace. It is not plot-driven, but is rather a character study. It also presents a picture of an period in America when modernity began to overtake traditional ways and values.

As a whole, I do not find the film to be one of Dustin Hoffman's best, but I would not have missed the haunting performance of Barbara Harris for the world. The rest of the supporting cast is also extraordinary, even including an unusual dramatic performance by Dom DeLuise, nicely done. Overall, worth seeing.

Potentially brilliant character study misses the mark as Hoffman plays a successful singer/songwriter who ends up badly tormented. Excessive smugness permeates a otherwise well crafted, well mounted production. Clearly the filmmakers thought they had a important "statement" picture. Unfortunately the statement becomes evasive and eventually muddled. Worth seeing just for Hoffman, who gives one of his best performances