With Honors

I'll admit; "With Honors" grew on me. Initially, I was cool towards it as it looked like some pretentious drivel, but as the movie progressed it grew on me.

The movie begins with Montgomery "Monty" Kessler (Brendan Frasier) dropping his thesis into a grate where it fell down into the boiler room of a library. By the time he hobbled down there to retrieve it a homeless man named Simon B. Wilder (Joe Pesci) was burning some pages to keep a fire going. When Monty tried to stop him, he attacked him with a metal pipe.

Right then and there I had a problem with the movie. A.) why would he grab what clearly looked like important documents and start burning them? B.) who puts paper in a boiler furnace to keep the fire stoked? C.) what was his deal attacking a student of the university he was squatting in?

This thesis was of the utmost importance to Monty because it was going to allow him to graduate with honors--hence the title. Simon, however, kept the remainder of the thesis hostage from Monty, whom he derisively called "Harvard," as a means of getting certain benefits from Monty (food, shelter, and other perks). All the while Simon is keeping the thesis hostage and only handing over a page per perk, he is carrying this air of moral superiority and prejudging Monty because he assumed Monty had prejudged him (the best defense is a good offense approach). Simon kept up this demeaning holier-than-thou charade long enough to where I was thinking, "This movie better correct itself soon because they're making this into a rich v. poor thing where the poor guy is inherently morally better because of his poverty."

Simon struck me as a cross between Robin Williams' character in "The Fisher King," and Ethan Hawke's character in "Reality Bites." Like Williams in "The Fisher King," Pesci was a short, pudgy, bearded homeless man with above average intelligence. Like Hawke in "Reality Bites," Pesci was almost misanthropic, totally demeaning, and arrogant with his sense of superiority because he isn't a slave to capitalism.

So, I was down on Simon and the entire movie to begin with. Then, just as the relationship between Simon and Monty grew, so did my enjoyment of the movie. It developed into a wonderful human-interest story with a side helping of a tolerable romance between Monty and his roommate Courtney Bloomenthal (Moira Kelly). I say tolerable romance because it wasn't too thick.

I liked "With Honors" as a complete project and I'm glad I gave it a chance.

So i caught this movie in the store and thought I'd give it a go because of Joe Pesci and Brendan Frasier. It's a very rewarding movie about life, and how sometimes we need to step back and see that we're all human. I'll definatly have to commend Brendan on his acting, a great job, and he's won new respect. Heartwarming film.

I saw this film when it first came out and as it turned out I saw it with someone who spent a few stretches of his life homeless. The late David T. Frank was most moved by the film and I take that as the highest possible accolade.

In a day and age when so few of us put anything aside as a cushion against hard times, lots of people are one paycheck away from being as homeless as Joe Pesci was here. Others like Pesci, have a debilitating illness and there's no place for them. The saddest of all are some of those with mental illnesses who are surviving on medication to keep psychoses under control.

Brendan Fraser is a Harvard undergraduate who is writing his senior thesis when his computer crashes, leaving him with only one printed out copy. I've had the experience of losing valuable files when the hard drive I'm writing this review crashed, so I know exactly where he was coming from.

Topping that off he loses that copy to Joe Pesci who's made himself a makeshift shelter in the boiler room of the Harvard library. Fraser finds Pesci throwing his thesis page by page into the boiler for some heat.

Pesci's got him by the short hairs and they make an incredible bargain. He'll give Fraser back his thesis page by page for favors done. Incredibly he accepts the deal.

More incredibly the two of them form a unique bond and Pesci goes to live with Fraser and his roommates, Moira Kelly, Patrick Dempsey and Josh Hamilton. Of the group of them I really enjoyed Hamilton's portrayal of the uptight pre-med student.

The four Harvard kids learn a whole lot about life and what's really important in it. And I think they all will graduate life with honors.

This review is respectfully dedicated to David T. Frank who checked out of life way too soon. Brendan, Joe, and the rest of the cast, this film deeply moved him, good job folks.

i'm tough on movies. i'm a critic for my college paper and i don't like alot of films i see. "with honors" impressed me, though.

i have never liked brenden frasier but he fit this part well. i totally bought him as a harvard student bent on graduating with honors. he begins the movie obsessed with his classes, thinking that receiving his "honors" diploma was all that was important in life for him. he spends day and night studying and working on his senior thesis. when joe pesci's character gets his hands on the only copy of the thesis, though, frasier is forced to focus on other things. pesci handles this role very well. he has never looked like mel gibson or kevin costner or whoever the big leading men are and he was a fine choice to play a down-and-out homeless man. he's a great actor who is probably the reason this movie is labeled "comedy." pesci is seen as a pain by frasier and his roommates for a while, as they see him as being a bum and not an equal to themselves. however, through his kind nature and wisdom from living a very difficult life, he earns their respect and makes them realize that some things are more important than graduating college with honors. life is the thing you want to end with honor. to say these were one-dimensional characters is blatantly false. frasier and each of his roommates grow as a result of their relationship with pesci. they change their whole focuses in life and find what is really important: friendship and honor. pesci's character undergoes his own transformation as he goes from an unlikeable, greedy man to an honorable man with good friends who have great admiration for him. Grade: 9 of 10

I´m one of those people who knows what to expect from a movie and the best part of it is that you can be surprised.

"With Honors" is certainly one of my favorite little movies so far. There are times when one gets tired from blockbuster-movies and cars blowing up and heros and spies and guns and the all-so-great 'wipe out the world ploy' (yes, I am quoting The Mummy Returns). I stopped by Blockbuster and decided I´d watch old movies and simple ones, so I got what I wanted but it was more than satisfying.

I love Joe Pesci and as surreal and unreal as his bum version was, you can´t help loving the guy. There was something very ´common place´ (the poor but incredibly wise man that is) about it, but the movie has it´s merits.

I knew Brendan Fraser could kick ass and look hot but I was pleased to see him act. The guy´s good and his character was really captivating, which gets the movie going.

There is a lesson coming from the movie, but it´s not one that will make you want roll your eyes (although it´s perfectly acceptable).

I watched it twice, and I´d watch it again.