Handsome Harry

Perhaps this will not be a very fair or complete review. We could not get through this movie no matter how hard we tried.

The telegraphed dialog and the wooden delivery of the actors, particularly with Mr. Sheridan, made me feel like I was watching a re-run of Matlock or Murder She Wrote.

Un-inventive, predictable and sophomoric are words that come to mind.

In one of the first scenes from the film, when we see Harry in his favorite restaurant, I was waiting for someone to start listing all the possible side effects of taking the mood altering pharmaceutical they were pitching... oh wait, this was supposed to be a movie. But it sure seems like a commercial for senior medicine.

If you like thrillers from the Lifetime network, this is for you.

If you like well made movies that have believable characters, look elsewhere.

This movie is about taking responsibility for one's actions, no matter how reprehensible. A man whose reputation is seemingly beyond reproach in fact has been harboring two secrets from the distant past, both of which suggest a darker and more sinister side of his personality. In a way, this movie is almost like a contemporary version of The Picture of Dorian Grey. On the surface, everything seems well, but that's merely a sham covering up a spiritual ugliness that sooner or later will be revealed. The presents the story in a forthright manner and is well-acted. The movie's principal character did a really rotten and hurtful thing and has been living a lie. How he resolves these issues is what this movie is about. The movie deals with these issues candidly and effectively, without bombarding the audience with pretentious and superfluous platitudes. Instead, the movie tells the story and leaves it to the audience to judge as to whether the man is worthy of forgiveness and respect.

(2009) Handsome Harry DRAMA

Harry Sweeney or "Handsome Harry" (Jamey Sheridan) hence the title makes a promise to former army friend Thomas Kelley (Steve Buscemi) before his passing, that he were to find and locate another former army recruit to whom they used to physically mock, tease and assault just because he was gay. And from the time Harry begins his journey to the time he goes and finds him, we're then shown in flashbacks some of the mistreatment or belittlement just because Harry thought it was what his army peers had wanted. The subject matter was much more relevant during the "don't say gay!' law than the current time.

I just saw this movie and not knowing much about it, I didn't know what to expect. Whatever my expectations, the movie had surpassed them. The cast is brilliant, the dialog tight, the building of the story towards the climax careful, sensitive and moving.

It's the story of a man, "Handsome" Harry (Jamie Sheridan) who didn't know his own life was a failure until he gets a call from an old navy friend (Steve Buscemi), forcing him to examine his life. It leads him on a road trip during which he seeks absolution - officially on his friend's behalf or maybe it's for himself - and has to come to grips with the decisions that he's made, the people that he's hurt and the crime he has committed. At the end of this journey, will he have the courage and strength to overcome the fear that drove him in the past?

I suspect the people who gave the movie poor grades were expecting something else entirely, a suspense thriller, and that's why they were disappointed. While there is some suspense here, it is first and foremost a soul-searching, heart-wrenching drama. And I for one feel richer for having seen it. Much like the jazz music that makes the beautiful soundtrack, there is not one note in it that's out of tune.

The reviews here are splendid, articulate, fair and respectful. I simply wanted to add how, at the close of the film, clever the screenwriter broadened the flashbacks to the young Kagan and the young Sweeney. We know there's a shower encounter that causes Kagan to be outed as gay but we are made curious by how Sweeney is involved and how the film shows more and more details about Sweeney as if his own memory is allowing the truth to become conscious. I thought it especially heart- wrenching when we see the young Kagan and young Sweeney playing a duet at Kagan's grand piano in his elegant home. I had not heard of this film and was merely browsing YouTube. I chose it from its title without noting it was a full movie. I could not stop watching.