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List Price: $29.98 | | Label: Anchor Bay - ITN
Salesrank: 692
Released: May 5, 2009 |
| Our Price: $3.01 |
| Used Price: $2.25 |
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MPAA Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
A struggling New York jingle writer (Dustin Hoffman) and a lonely British bureaucrat (Emma Thompson) meet by chane in London and transform one another's lives.
Description of Last Chance Harvey:
Anyone who’s seen the trailer for Last Chance Harvey can easily guess how it ends. In fact, the title alone is a clue. But the destination is hardly the point with movies like this; it’s the journey that counts, and this one is pretty entertaining. You could call director-writer Joel Hopkins’ film a romantic comedy, but it’s not especially robust in either of those departments. This is more of a character study, and veteran lead actors Dustin Hoffman and Emma Thompson are well up to the task of bringing theirs to life. Both are awkward, lonely, social misfits. Hoffman’s Harvey Shine is a bit of a schlub; his gig as a jingle composer in jeopardy, estranged from his ex-wife (Kathy Baker) and daughter (Liane Balaban), he flies to London for the latter’s wedding, only to have her tell him that she has chosen her step-father (James Brolin) rather than him to give her away. Meanwhile, Kate Walker (Thompson) spends her days trying to survey harried travelers at Heathrow Airport, answering her meddling mother’s constant stream of cell phone calls, and awaiting the all-to-inevitable onset of spinsterhood. Harvey has already brushed her off once when, having put in a humiliating appearance at the wedding and missed his return flight to America, he runs into her in an airport bar. What ensues--the initial repartee and sarcastic snarking, the gradual breaking of the ice, the burgeoning attraction, the complications and misunderstandings--is entirely predictable. But it’s also well done. These are people one might actually identify with; when Kate tells him, "I’m more comfortable with being disappointed. I’m angry with you for trying to take that away," one senses a real person in there, which helps raise Last Chance Harvey above its conventions. --Sam Graham Fennessy
Get to Know the Cast From Last Chance Harvey
Dustin Hoffman (Harvey)
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Emma Thompson (Kate)
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Kathy Baker (Jean)
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Beyond Last Chance Harvey on DVD
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Stills from Last Chance Harvey (Click for larger image)
Last Chance Harvey Reviews:
Surprisingly Wonderful Tearjerker 
2009-11-29 - I saw the trailer for this movie a while ago and thought I would definitely not see it. The trailer somehow missed all the sweetness and poignancy of the film. I thought it would be about two people being miserable and lonely together. It's exactly the opposite. It's two people becoming vibrant and alive together, and it's pitch perfect. The tearful moments in the movie are so genuine, so moving, especially because of the acting. When these characters suffer and when they connect, you just sob for them because their suffering, their sharing, is so real. And the pacing is fantastic. It carries you along easily -- not a single scene is too long and not a single moment drags. I can't believe how moving this movie is while at the same time being so enjoyable, almost light. And the chemistry between Hoffman and Thompson is surprisingly perfect. Goodness. I wish they would make a sequel.
In London you'll find love! 
2009-11-18 - "Last Chance Harvey" is a very pleasant script in which we will witness a love redemption.
Two lonely people Harvey (a real loser) goes to London to assist to his daughter's wedding. He is divorced and his job as composer of jingles doesn't seem to smile him. On the other hand Kate is a single woman in her forties who lives disappointed from love and its multiple treasures.
Due a clever fate's crossroad they will meet at the airport, and slow but gradually they will establish a very original relationship in which love will appear, giving both a second chance.
A lovable film in which the brilliant performances of these two giants actors allow to lead this movie to a secure port.
great
2009-11-15 - You have to put this on your list.Superb acting by both male and female leads.Emma Thompson delightful .
A nice love story for the grownups (for a change)
2009-11-11 - My first two thoughts on sitting down to watch this pretty-good film were "Christ, Dustin Hoffman's getting old!" And "Wow, Emma Thompson looks great!" Hoffman is Harvey Shine, professional New York advertising jingle writer who regrets never having become a jazz pianist. He and his wife split some years ago (he wasn't that great a husband or father, as he admits) and now his daughter is getting married in London. Having flown over to take part, he finds she wants her stepfather to give her away instead. Moreover, his career is falling apart and his boss finally sacks him by cell phone. That's half the set-up. There's also Emma as Kate Walker, self-employed as (apparently) an airport poll-taker with a couple of employees and a neurotic mother, whose social life seems to consist of going on blind dates set up by her friends only to be abandoned by whomever she's with. Harvey, naturally, bumps into Kate both arriving in the country and attempting to depart. But the airline screws up and he's delayed in London for another day, and the two sort of drift together -- largely because Harvey rather desperately insists on trying to establish a relationship. His doggedness about it is wince-provoking; in real life, Kate probably would tell him to sod off. But the funny thing is, in this story, it works. They spend a good deal of time walking and talking, Kate finally drags him to the wedding reception he hadn't meant to attend, and things work out finally with his daughter. It's a matter of Harvey trying to organize what is clearly his "last chance" for any kind of happiness and of the never-married Kate trying to decide whether to take the chance of being hurt. It's a nice little different sort of love story with some excellent acting.
Last Chance Harvey
2009-10-19 - This is a GREAT movie! It reaffirms my faith in the 'film' industry - that not everything made into a 'flick' has no-bound sex, and every word in the revised Webster's Dictionary. The acting is superb and the plot does the actors justice. Really a Must for your DVD library!
This is truly a "Don't Miss"!
