Last Chance Harvey (12A)
- Starring: Dustin Hoffman, Emma Thompson, Eileen Atkins, James Brolin
- Director: Joel Hopkins
- Duration: 92 mins
- Year: 2008
You are never too old to fall in love is the message of this romantic comedy featuring the dream team of multi Oscar-winners Emma Thompson and Dustin Hoffman - both whom received Golden Globe nominations for their performances. Warmly witty and surprisingly touching, Last Chance Harvey has a humanity that is often missing from modern comedies.
Reviews
Alison Rowat's Review
As if functioning as an antidote to the bleakness of Terminator Salvation, Last Chance Harvey ladles on the syrup as if the moviegoer’s life depended on it.
The film’s stars, Emma Thompson and to a lesser extent Dustin Hoffman, are actors who can be filed under A for acquired taste. How much you like this picture will depend on your fondness for Dustin’s relentless twinkling and Emma’s jolly hockey sticks earnestness.
Harvey (Hoffman) has flown into London from New York for his daughter’s wedding. Among his first encounters with the natives is his brushing aside of Kate (Thompson), one of those lovely airport survey ladies we’re all so keen to meet after a long journey.
When Harvey finds out his role at the wedding is not what he expected, he winds up at the airport bar where Kate is sitting. Of all the overpriced gin joints in all the world, etc. After another prickly start the two hit it off and over the course of the wedding weekend get to know each other better. Will this be a last chance of love for Harvey? Can Kate break her disastrous track record in love? Or will Harvey suddenly realise she’s about three feet taller than him and no amount of clever camera angles will make a difference?
Thompson is usually a presence in any Richard Curtis film doing the rounds, and there’s more than a touch of Curtis here, particularly in the Vicar of Dibley-style sub plots involving Eileen Atkins as Kate’s dotty mother and Kate’s chirpy colleagues. Mercifully, fellow Brit director Joel Hopkins (Jump Tomorrow) adds just enough edge to the characters of Harvey and Kate to stop the picture sliding into mush.