It has taken me forever to come to a conclusion on why I am not completely recommending this film. I am always pleased to see veteran character Jamey Sheridan (THE ICE STORM,SYRIANNA) leave the Great White Way and grace us with his presence. Actually the film has really good performances, especially from Campbell Scott (DAMAGES). The whole cast is made up of some of our greatest unsung character actors working today with even a decent script. So why do I feel cold?
Jamey Sheridan plays Harry Sweeney, a likable loner that has a storied past from his Navy days. He gets a call from the dying Steve Buscemi (BOARDWALK EMPIRE), who asks him to fulfill a last wish. During their term of service, they maliciously wounded a fellow sailor; David Kagan, because he was homosexual. During the group assault, someone drops an armature on Kagan, ruining his promising career as a concert pianist. Buscemi believes he was the one that permanently damaged Kagan’s right hand and wants Harry to ask Kagan for forgiveness, an event Harry has very little memory of. This sends the reluctant Harry on a journey to seek out his fellow sailors and find Kagan. Of course, Harry learns of his own involvement in an act so terrible, a dying man would think he is going to hell for it.
To HANDSOME HARRY’S defense, the script holds up its part of the bargain. Harry is an unreliable narrator, and in many ways, the villain of the story. He invades a lot of people lives, and even ends a marriage over an incident everyone wants to forget. Meanwhile, Harry denies culpability claiming no memory throughout the film, despite evidence to the contrary. But no villain sees himself as the bad guy in his own story and neither does Harry.
It is refreshing to see a film from the viewpoint of the guilty and not the victim, which leads to themes of forgiveness, which do work in the film. It is possible that Harry remembers everything, and so does Buscemi. And that Buscemi really does not care about his own salvation, but of Harry’s, who still has years of life to live. Unfortunately for Harry, there’s no real closure and the audience doesn’t need him to be forgiven. Stories like this rarely have happy endings and I enjoyed the film more that Harry ends up seeing himself as a person who may not be quite so righteous after all.
So the story and acting are there, along with themes that parallel current issues with repealing DADT. Yet I feel just “meh” about this film overall. It took awhile but I think what leaves me disappointed is the not story itself, but the nature of the storytelling. This film is only a good film with a decent script, instead of a great film with Oscar caliber acting, which addresses the subjects of forgiveness and honesty.
It is very trendy to tell “war” stories in a “Rashamon” style, and the most successful recent example was 2008’s WALTZ WITH BASHIR. The reason that BASHIR succeeds wins when HARRY falters is simply that BASHIR has the luck of being an animated tale. The incredible visuals blind the audience to a movie that is actually pretty repetitive. No such luck with HARRY. Harry goes from one place to another to learn about a horrible transgression he claims he doesn’t remember and we have to see the same type of scenes again and again to learn small chunks of the larger picture. But this history is pretty obvious from shot one. In other more successful versions of this type of storytelling, each new sequence gives new and illuminating insight to the incident and people involved. But the direction in HANSOME HARRY is so foreshadowing that when it comes to the “big reveal,” you’re not surprised. The structure hurts what would be an otherwise cracking screenplay. I would have rather seen a film about the incident itself instead of a film told in flashback and monologue, which slows the story down to an exposition crawl. By the time the final scene with Kagan arrives, you are almost too bored to care if Harry gets or deserves the forgiveness he’s seeking.
If you like any of the actors, you might find this to be a nice film to visit on DVD, but it’s unfortunate that it will not stick with you. Jamey Sheridan should get to star in more movies as he carries this film, proving he is certainly up to the task. I hope his next film will be one that I can recommend but is also noticed by the Academy. GRADE C+
"Handsome Harry" comes out on DVD, December 28th.
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