Last Chance Harvey (2008) - 6/10

This morning I checked out one of our own titles, Overture's Last Chance Harvey, and found myself not very engaged or impressed at all. I don't know if it's my young age of not being able to connect with these older characters but I couldn't understand this idea of struggling to find joy in their lives and have one "last chance" at love. This movie didn't seem to go anywhere or have any thoughts of it's own, mostly using rehashed themes of losing family and connecting with a random person who turns out to be exactly what you need to keep you going. There are some very emotional scenes at the beginning when Dustin Hoffman is told that his daughter wants her stepdad to give her away at her wedding, but to have his job and everything in his life fall apart at once seemed predicatble and contrived. The chemistry b/w Emma Thompson and Hoffman is great though and to see them smile throughout in contrast to their sad lives was a relief as for me I need something uplifting every now and again to make me stay positive about being single in my own life. Last Chance Harvey is a simple story which shows respect for it's actors and creates some great moments like when Harvey comes back to the wedding and stands up for himself to dance with his daughter, yet in the end it seemed quite boring and uneventful just like the lives of the characters. I hope we can make better movies moving forward.