Handsome Harry

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.

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.

I watched this moving while knowing NOTHING about it - and I am VERY glad I did.

There are so many movies out there that I always spend lots of time looking through IMDb to decide whether a movie is worth my time or not. First I check the rating, and then if it is over 5.5 I read the summary and maybe some reviews and sometimes the Message board comments.

I'm SO GLAD I didn't know anything about this movie when I watched it. I won't spoil the movie for you by pointing out the main conflict the movie takes a long time to get around to telling us all about.

But that is what I liked about this movie. It tells the story about a crime that occurred long ago - and we just start to get hints about what really happened - slowly - as the story plays out - and it is rather fascinating to watch the truth come to dawn on the main character.

The story is fairly obviously about Harry who is asked by his friend Thomas to do a favour for him on his deathbed and apologize to their long ago friend for something Thomas did that he thought he was going to go to hell for.

Harry was drunk the night this fight happened, and he can't remember much of what happened - but what I think is really cool is that by the end of the movie I'm starting to wonder if his mind made him intentionally forget what happened. Sometimes what we've done is so traumatic we choose to forget what we did.

Very painful memories from a very long time ago come back to Harry - and parts of this movie really made me cry.

This movie deserves 8 or 9 stars - and it is SO, SO much better to see something like this than some shallow characters in a car chase and fights and shootouts, blah blah blah.

I loved this movie. It sneaks up on you. It's message is obviously to be honest with yourself and don't let your life pass you by without telling those you love how you feel.

Don't miss this movie - and trust me - and take my word for it - please watch this movie before you read any other reviews.

It's better to see this movie before you know what it is about.

I did - and I'm glad I did.

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.