Last Chance Harvey
Encyclopedia
Last Chance Harvey is a 2008 American romantic drama film written and directed by Joel Hopkins
. The screenplay focuses on two lonely people who tentatively forge a relationship over the course of three days. Dustin Hoffman
plays an American composer who loses his job and his position of father of the bride in the course of a single day overseas.
s for television commercials
, a job not in keeping with his one-time aspiration to be a jazz
composer and pianist. His position at work is tenuous as he departs for London
to attend his daughter Susan's wedding. Upon arrival at Heathrow Airport
, he encounters Kate Walker, a single Londoner who collects statistics from passengers as they pass through the terminals. Tired and anxious to get to his hotel, Harvey brusquely dismisses her when she approaches him to ask questions.
Harvey is upset to discover his ex-wife Jean rented a house to accommodate family and friends from the States but failed to include him. At the rehearsal dinner on the night preceding the wedding, it becomes increasingly clear Harvey is considered a mere guest and the role of father of the bride has been delegated to Jean's husband Brian. When Harvey tells Susan, with whom he has shared a strained relationship since his divorce, that he will be attending the ceremony but not the subsequent reception because he needs to return to the States for an important meeting, she informs him she has asked her stepfather to give her away.
Meanwhile, Kate is on a blind date that is not going well. When she returns to the table after taking yet another call from her neurotic mother Maggie, who is certain her Polish neighbor is burying bodies in a shed in his yard, she discovers her date has invited friends to join them. Feeling unwanted and excluded from the conversation, she eventually excuses herself and goes home.
The following morning Harvey attends the wedding, but heavy traffic delays his arrival at Heathrow and he misses his flight. When he calls his boss Marvin to advise him he will be returning a day later than planned, he is fired. Determined to drown his sorrows, Harvey goes to an airport bar and sees Kate. Recognizing her from the day before, he apologizes for his rude behavior. She initially resists the attention he is paying her but finally joins him in conversation.
Harvey follows Kate to the Heathrow Express
and, upon arrival at Paddington station, asks if he can walk her to her writing class on the South Bank
. She accepts his offer and is pleased when he offers to meet her after class. As they stroll along the River Thames
, Harvey mentions he is missing Susan's wedding reception, and Kate urges him to go. He finally relents, but only if she will accompany him. When Kate insists she is not properly dressed for such an occasion, Harvey buys her a dress and the two head to the Grosvenor House Hotel
, where they are welcomed coolly by Susan. When the father of the bride is called upon to make a toast, Brian rises and begins to speak until Harvey interrupts. He then delivers an eloquent speech that redeems him with his daughter and endears him to Kate.
Immediately following the first dance of the bride and groom, the groom calls Harvey up to dance with his daughter for the Father-Daughter Dance. He happily does so, and then all the guests join them on the floor for the rumba, tango and other dances, with Harvey enjoying himself on the dance floor, alone. Kate is left at the table, once again in the same position as when she was on her blind date. Her smile becomes more strained as she looks about and sees herself alone at the table in a room of strangers for several dances, Harvey having apparently forgotten she was there. When she surmises he will not be coming to ask her to dance, her smile disappears and she quietly leaves the room and stands in front of the elevator, preparing to leave.
Harvey, now looking for Kate, goes into the corridor and seeing her waiting for the elevator, he disappears into a side annex with a piano and begins to softly play one of his own jazz compositions for her. She hears the music and follows it, finding Harvey smiling and waiting for her. He asks her to return to the reception to dance and stay with him. She smiles and agrees.
Following the reception, Harvey and Kate walk and talk until dawn. They exchange a single, gentle kiss and agree to meet at noon. At his hotel, Harvey experiences serious heart palpitations and is rushed to the hospital, where he receives a call from Marvin who, having discovered his employee is more indispensable than he thought, urges him to return to work as soon as possible. Harvey decides he prefers to remain in London and explore the possibility of a relationship with Kate. He tracks her down at her writing class and reveals why he missed their rendezvous. Overly cautious about romance because of so many past disappointments, Kate initially resists his suggestion that they see what the future might bring them, but finally agrees to give things a chance.
As they slowly stroll away, Harvey invites Kate to ask him the questions she would have asked him at the airport terminal, and this time, he happily answers, telling her his place of residence "...is in transition."
and Dustin Hoffman
in An Unconventional Love Story: The Making of Last Chance Harvey, a bonus feature on the DVD release of the film, both had been anxious to work with each other again ever since completing Stranger Than Fiction. When screenwriter/director Joel Hopkins approached her with the script, Thompson suggested he tailor it to accommodate Hoffman, who agreed to portray Harvey if Hopkins would allow his actors the leeway to improvise
some of their scenes. Hopkins complied, and several of Harvey and Kate's conversations were ad-libbed while keeping within the dictates of the plot.
London locations seen in the film include Belsize Park
, Green Park
, Maida Vale
, the Millennium Dome
on the Greenwich peninsula
, the Millennium Bridge
, the Royal National Theatre
at Southbank Centre, Paddington station, Somerset House
, St. John's Wood, Waterloo Bridge
, and Stansted Airport in Essex
.
, based on 146 reviews, and a Metacritic
score of 57 out of 100, based on 27 reviews.
Manohla Dargis
of the New York Times admitted "there’s something irresistible about watching two people fall in love, even in contrived, sniffle- and sometimes gag-inducing films like Last Chance Harvey . . . I reluctantly gave in to this imperfect movie, despite the cornball dialogue, pedestrian filmmaking, some wincing physical comedy and Mr. Hoffman’s habit of trying to win the audience over by simply staring at the camera with a hapless deadpan that says: Look at me, I’m still cute as a button, still cute as Benjamin in The Graduate
, and I’m still kind of lost and still very much in need of your love."
Roger Ebert
of the Chicago Sun-Times
called the film a "tremendously appealing love story surrounded by a movie not worthy of it. For Dustin Hoffman . . . it provides a rare chance to play ... an ordinary guy. For Emma Thompson, there is an opportunity to use her gifts for tact and insecurity . . . When Last Chance Harvey gets out of their way and leaves them alone to relate with each other, it's sort of magical. Then the lumber of the plot apparatus is trundled on, and we wish it were a piece for two players . . . [W]hat's good is very good . . . Pitch perfect. But then the dialogue fades down, and the camera pulls back and shows them talking and smiling freely, and the music gets happier, and there is a montage showing them walking about London with lots and lots of scenery in the frame . . . Last Chance Harvey has everything it needs but won't stop there. It needs the nerve to push all the way. It is a pleasure to look upon the faces of Hoffman and Thompson, so pleasant, so real. Their dialogue together finds the right notes for crossing an emotional minefield. They never descend into tear-jerking or cuteness. They are all grown up and don't trust love nearly as much as straight talk. Hopkins deserves credit for creating these characters. Then he should have stood back and let them keep right on talking. Their pillow talk would have been spellbinding."
Mick LaSalle
of the San Francisco Chronicle
observed, "One's enjoyment of Last Chance Harvey will depend on how suitable one considers the pairing of these characters and how felicitous one considers the pairing of these performers. The latter is most important, because if you enjoy Hoffman and Thompson together, you might be able to overlook the ghastly prospect of poor Kate's throwing her life away on this guy. To be sure, Thompson and Hoffman are watchable and engaging, and that counts for something. But they don't look right as a couple, and each is more interesting in his or her scenes apart than they are together."
Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly
graded the film B-, calling it "a losers-in-love comedy with no big surprises, but in the age of Internet dating, the prospect of two strangers trying this valiantly to connect in public carries a dash of romantic heroism . . . These two deserved the intimate incandescence of their own Before Sunrise, rather than the slightly generic sentimentality of a cross-Atlantic Marty
. But Hoffman and Thompson are each good enough to bring out a glow in the other."
Marjorie Baumgarten of the Austin Chronicle
said, "With its thin plot and its title character an American abroad in London, Last Chance Harvey comes across as something like a Before Sunrise for the less-than-nubile set. Were that writer/director Hopkins' dialogue and visualization as scintillating as Richard Linklater
's is in his Sunrise
/Sunset
romances. Of course, the combined acting brilliance of Hoffman and Thompson could elevate the hoariest of clichés and turn almost anything they touch golden – and that is most often the case with Last Chance Harvey. But no one's skills can transcend the kooky banality of a trying-on-dresses montage or burnish the somewhat creepy way in which Harvey first comes on to Kate. Still, these two prove a pleasure to watch, and their conversations are realistic troves of give and take . . . Middle-aged romances are, sadly, hard to find on the silver screen, so it's with some hesitation I pronounce Last Chance Harvey not up to snuff. Yet if we are to see any more romances starring characters old enough to have witnessed both Hoffman and Thompson winning Oscars, it's our responsibility to go out and support this one."
Claudia Puig of USA Today
noted, "The film's biggest asset is the pitch-perfect performances of the two stars. They have a gentle rapport that unfolds convincingly after some initial testiness. It takes two consummate actors to make quickly escalating chemistry feel so natural. We find ourselves heartily rooting for them. Hoffman and Thompson rise above the sometimes obvious story arc, and the result is a surprisingly tender and appealing love story."
Joshua Rothkopf of Time Out New York rated the film three out of five stars and commented, "If anything can be said to be wrong with so benign an affair, it’s simply that Last Chance Harvey doesn’t feel much like cinema. Little excites the material visually; the film’s dully lensed Blighty lends nothing to the drama. But to watch Hoffman and Thompson work the lines is to witness two extremely unlikely stars recapture the essence of their appeal: The tiny neurotic is suddenly Romeo again, while the cool Brit melts in the light of affection. For some, that will be enough."
in In Bruges
. Emma Thompson was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy but lost to Sally Hawkins
in Happy-Go-Lucky
.
released the film on a two-disc DVD set on May 5, 2009. On Disc One the film is presented in anamorphic widescreen
format with an audio track in English and subtitles in English and Spanish. Bonus features include commentary with Joel Hopkins, Dustin Hoffman, and Emma Thompson, An Unconventional Love Story: The Making of Last Chance Harvey, and the theatrical trailer. Disc Two presents the film in fullscreen
format.
Joel Hopkins
Joel Hopkins is a British independent film director and screenwriter best known for his films Jump Tomorrow and Last Chance Harvey .-Career:Hopkins was born in London, England, though he moved to New York to attend university...
. The screenplay focuses on two lonely people who tentatively forge a relationship over the course of three days. Dustin Hoffman
Dustin Hoffman
Dustin Lee Hoffman is an American actor with a career in film, television, and theatre since 1960. He has been known for his versatile portrayals of antiheroes and vulnerable characters....
plays an American composer who loses his job and his position of father of the bride in the course of a single day overseas.
Plot
Divorced American Harvey Shine writes jingleJingle
A jingle is a short tune used in advertising and for other commercial uses. The jingle contains one or more hooks and lyrics that explicitly promote the product being advertised, usually through the use of one or more advertising slogans. Ad buyers use jingles in radio and television...
s for television commercials
Television advertisement
A television advertisement or television commercial, often just commercial, advert, ad, or ad-film – is a span of television programming produced and paid for by an organization that conveys a message, typically one intended to market a product...
, a job not in keeping with his one-time aspiration to be a jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
composer and pianist. His position at work is tenuous as he departs for London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
to attend his daughter Susan's wedding. Upon arrival at Heathrow Airport
London Heathrow Airport
London Heathrow Airport or Heathrow , in the London Borough of Hillingdon, is the busiest airport in the United Kingdom and the third busiest airport in the world in terms of total passenger traffic, handling more international passengers than any other airport around the globe...
, he encounters Kate Walker, a single Londoner who collects statistics from passengers as they pass through the terminals. Tired and anxious to get to his hotel, Harvey brusquely dismisses her when she approaches him to ask questions.
Harvey is upset to discover his ex-wife Jean rented a house to accommodate family and friends from the States but failed to include him. At the rehearsal dinner on the night preceding the wedding, it becomes increasingly clear Harvey is considered a mere guest and the role of father of the bride has been delegated to Jean's husband Brian. When Harvey tells Susan, with whom he has shared a strained relationship since his divorce, that he will be attending the ceremony but not the subsequent reception because he needs to return to the States for an important meeting, she informs him she has asked her stepfather to give her away.
Meanwhile, Kate is on a blind date that is not going well. When she returns to the table after taking yet another call from her neurotic mother Maggie, who is certain her Polish neighbor is burying bodies in a shed in his yard, she discovers her date has invited friends to join them. Feeling unwanted and excluded from the conversation, she eventually excuses herself and goes home.
The following morning Harvey attends the wedding, but heavy traffic delays his arrival at Heathrow and he misses his flight. When he calls his boss Marvin to advise him he will be returning a day later than planned, he is fired. Determined to drown his sorrows, Harvey goes to an airport bar and sees Kate. Recognizing her from the day before, he apologizes for his rude behavior. She initially resists the attention he is paying her but finally joins him in conversation.
Harvey follows Kate to the Heathrow Express
Heathrow Express
Heathrow Express is an airport rail link from London Heathrow Airport to London Paddington station in London operated by the Heathrow Express Operating Authority, a wholly owned subsidiary of BAA. It was opened by the then Prime Minister Tony Blair in 1998...
and, upon arrival at Paddington station, asks if he can walk her to her writing class on the South Bank
South Bank
South Bank is an area of London, England located immediately adjacent to the south side of the River Thames. It forms a long and narrow section of riverside development that is within the London Borough of Lambeth to the border with the London Borough of Southwark and was formerly simply known as...
. She accepts his offer and is pleased when he offers to meet her after class. As they stroll along the River Thames
River Thames
The River Thames flows through southern England. It is the longest river entirely in England and the second longest in the United Kingdom. While it is best known because its lower reaches flow through central London, the river flows alongside several other towns and cities, including Oxford,...
, Harvey mentions he is missing Susan's wedding reception, and Kate urges him to go. He finally relents, but only if she will accompany him. When Kate insists she is not properly dressed for such an occasion, Harvey buys her a dress and the two head to the Grosvenor House Hotel
Grosvenor House Hotel
Grosvenor House is a large and luxurious hotel. The iconic Mayfair, London hotel is owned by the Sahara Group. The name has also been licensed to a property in Dubai....
, where they are welcomed coolly by Susan. When the father of the bride is called upon to make a toast, Brian rises and begins to speak until Harvey interrupts. He then delivers an eloquent speech that redeems him with his daughter and endears him to Kate.
Immediately following the first dance of the bride and groom, the groom calls Harvey up to dance with his daughter for the Father-Daughter Dance. He happily does so, and then all the guests join them on the floor for the rumba, tango and other dances, with Harvey enjoying himself on the dance floor, alone. Kate is left at the table, once again in the same position as when she was on her blind date. Her smile becomes more strained as she looks about and sees herself alone at the table in a room of strangers for several dances, Harvey having apparently forgotten she was there. When she surmises he will not be coming to ask her to dance, her smile disappears and she quietly leaves the room and stands in front of the elevator, preparing to leave.
Harvey, now looking for Kate, goes into the corridor and seeing her waiting for the elevator, he disappears into a side annex with a piano and begins to softly play one of his own jazz compositions for her. She hears the music and follows it, finding Harvey smiling and waiting for her. He asks her to return to the reception to dance and stay with him. She smiles and agrees.
Following the reception, Harvey and Kate walk and talk until dawn. They exchange a single, gentle kiss and agree to meet at noon. At his hotel, Harvey experiences serious heart palpitations and is rushed to the hospital, where he receives a call from Marvin who, having discovered his employee is more indispensable than he thought, urges him to return to work as soon as possible. Harvey decides he prefers to remain in London and explore the possibility of a relationship with Kate. He tracks her down at her writing class and reveals why he missed their rendezvous. Overly cautious about romance because of so many past disappointments, Kate initially resists his suggestion that they see what the future might bring them, but finally agrees to give things a chance.
As they slowly stroll away, Harvey invites Kate to ask him the questions she would have asked him at the airport terminal, and this time, he happily answers, telling her his place of residence "...is in transition."
Production
According to interviews with Emma ThompsonEmma Thompson
Emma Thompson is a British actress, comedian and screenwriter. Her first major film role was in the 1989 romantic comedy The Tall Guy. In 1992, Thompson won multiple acting awards, including an Academy Award and a BAFTA Award for Best Actress, for her performance in the British drama Howards End...
and Dustin Hoffman
Dustin Hoffman
Dustin Lee Hoffman is an American actor with a career in film, television, and theatre since 1960. He has been known for his versatile portrayals of antiheroes and vulnerable characters....
in An Unconventional Love Story: The Making of Last Chance Harvey, a bonus feature on the DVD release of the film, both had been anxious to work with each other again ever since completing Stranger Than Fiction. When screenwriter/director Joel Hopkins approached her with the script, Thompson suggested he tailor it to accommodate Hoffman, who agreed to portray Harvey if Hopkins would allow his actors the leeway to improvise
Improvisation
Improvisation is the practice of acting, singing, talking and reacting, of making and creating, in the moment and in response to the stimulus of one's immediate environment and inner feelings. This can result in the invention of new thought patterns, new practices, new structures or symbols, and/or...
some of their scenes. Hopkins complied, and several of Harvey and Kate's conversations were ad-libbed while keeping within the dictates of the plot.
London locations seen in the film include Belsize Park
Belsize Park
Belsize Park is an area of north-west London, England, in the London Borough of Camden.It is located north-west of Charing Cross and situated on the Northern Line. It borders Hampstead to the north and west, Kentish Town and Gospel Oak to the east, Camden Town to the south east and Primrose Hill...
, Green Park
Green Park
-External links:*...
, Maida Vale
Maida Vale
Maida Vale is a residential district in West London between St John's Wood and Kilburn. It is part of the City of Westminster. The area is mostly residential, and mainly affluent, consisting of many large late Victorian and Edwardian blocks of mansion flats...
, the Millennium Dome
The O2 (London)
The O2, visually typeset in branding as The O2, is a large entertainment district on the Greenwich peninsula in South East London, England, including an indoor arena, a music club, a Cineworld cinema, an exhibition space, piazzas, bars and restaurants...
on the Greenwich peninsula
Greenwich Peninsula
Greenwich Peninsula is an area of South London, England, located in the London Borough of Greenwich.The peninsula is bounded on three sides by a loop of the Thames, between the Isle of Dogs and Silvertown. To the south is the rest of Greenwich, to the south-east is Charlton.The peninsula lies...
, the Millennium Bridge
Millennium Bridge (London)
The Millennium Bridge, officially known as the London Millennium Footbridge, is a steel suspension bridge for pedestrians crossing the River Thames in London, England, linking Bankside with the City. It is located between Southwark Bridge and Blackfriars Railway Bridge...
, the Royal National Theatre
Royal National Theatre
The Royal National Theatre in London is one of the United Kingdom's two most prominent publicly funded theatre companies, alongside the Royal Shakespeare Company...
at Southbank Centre, Paddington station, Somerset House
Somerset House
Somerset House is a large building situated on the south side of the Strand in central London, England, overlooking the River Thames, just east of Waterloo Bridge. The central block of the Neoclassical building, the outstanding project of the architect Sir William Chambers, dates from 1776–96. It...
, St. John's Wood, Waterloo Bridge
Waterloo Bridge
Waterloo Bridge is a road and foot traffic bridge crossing the River Thames in London, England between Blackfriars Bridge and Hungerford Bridge. The name of the bridge is in memory of the British victory at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815...
, and Stansted Airport in Essex
Essex
Essex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England, and one of the home counties. It is located to the northeast of Greater London. It borders with Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent to the South and London to the south west...
.
Cast
- Dustin HoffmanDustin HoffmanDustin Lee Hoffman is an American actor with a career in film, television, and theatre since 1960. He has been known for his versatile portrayals of antiheroes and vulnerable characters....
as Harvey Shine - Emma ThompsonEmma ThompsonEmma Thompson is a British actress, comedian and screenwriter. Her first major film role was in the 1989 romantic comedy The Tall Guy. In 1992, Thompson won multiple acting awards, including an Academy Award and a BAFTA Award for Best Actress, for her performance in the British drama Howards End...
as Kate Walker - Eileen AtkinsEileen AtkinsDame Eileen June Atkins, DBE is an English actress and occasional screenwriter.- Early life :Atkins was born in the Mothers' Hospital in Clapton, a Salvation Army women's hostel in East London...
as Maggie Walker - Kathy BakerKathy BakerKatherine Whitton "Kathy" Baker is an American stage, film and television actress.-Career:Baker began her career at San Francisco's Magic Theatre, performing in several of Sam Shepard's plays before getting her break in an off-Broadway production of Fool for Love opposite Ed Harris...
as Jean - James BrolinJames BrolinJames Brolin is an American actor, producer and director, best known for his roles in soap operas, movies, sitcoms, and television. He is the father of actor Josh Brolin and husband of singer/actress Barbra Streisand.-Early life:...
as Brian - Liane BalabanLiane BalabanLiane Balaban is a Canadian actress. Her film debut was in New Waterford Girl , playing Agnes-Marie "Moonie" Pottie, and has since appeared in the films Definitely, Maybe , Last Chance Harvey , and the independent drama One Week .-Early life:Balaban was born in North York, Ontario, the daughter of...
as Susan Shine - Daniel LapaineDaniel LapaineDaniel Lapaine is an Australian actor.Born in Sydney, Australia, Lapaine graduated from the National Institute of Dramatic Art in 1992. In 1994, he played David Van Arckle in P. J. Hogan's Muriel's Wedding...
as Scott Wright - Richard SchiffRichard SchiffRichard Schiff is an American actor. He is best known for playing Toby Ziegler on the NBC television drama The West Wing, a role for which he received an Emmy Award...
as Marvin
Critical reception
As of August 14, 2009, the film holds a 70% fresh rating on Rotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
, based on 146 reviews, and a Metacritic
Metacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
score of 57 out of 100, based on 27 reviews.
Manohla Dargis
Manohla Dargis
Manohla Dargis is a chief film critic for The New York Times, along with A.O. Scott. She was formerly a chief film critic for the Los Angeles Times, the film editor at the LA Weekly, and a film critic at The Village Voice. She has written for a variety of publications, including Film Comment and...
of the New York Times admitted "there’s something irresistible about watching two people fall in love, even in contrived, sniffle- and sometimes gag-inducing films like Last Chance Harvey . . . I reluctantly gave in to this imperfect movie, despite the cornball dialogue, pedestrian filmmaking, some wincing physical comedy and Mr. Hoffman’s habit of trying to win the audience over by simply staring at the camera with a hapless deadpan that says: Look at me, I’m still cute as a button, still cute as Benjamin in The Graduate
The Graduate
The Graduate is a 1967 American comedy-drama motion picture directed by Mike Nichols. It is based on the 1963 novel The Graduate by Charles Webb, who wrote it shortly after graduating from Williams College. The screenplay was by Buck Henry, who makes a cameo appearance as a hotel clerk, and Calder...
, and I’m still kind of lost and still very much in need of your love."
Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
of the Chicago Sun-Times
Chicago Sun-Times
The Chicago Sun-Times is an American daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois. It is the flagship paper of the Sun-Times Media Group.-History:The Chicago Sun-Times is the oldest continuously published daily newspaper in the city...
called the film a "tremendously appealing love story surrounded by a movie not worthy of it. For Dustin Hoffman . . . it provides a rare chance to play ... an ordinary guy. For Emma Thompson, there is an opportunity to use her gifts for tact and insecurity . . . When Last Chance Harvey gets out of their way and leaves them alone to relate with each other, it's sort of magical. Then the lumber of the plot apparatus is trundled on, and we wish it were a piece for two players . . . [W]hat's good is very good . . . Pitch perfect. But then the dialogue fades down, and the camera pulls back and shows them talking and smiling freely, and the music gets happier, and there is a montage showing them walking about London with lots and lots of scenery in the frame . . . Last Chance Harvey has everything it needs but won't stop there. It needs the nerve to push all the way. It is a pleasure to look upon the faces of Hoffman and Thompson, so pleasant, so real. Their dialogue together finds the right notes for crossing an emotional minefield. They never descend into tear-jerking or cuteness. They are all grown up and don't trust love nearly as much as straight talk. Hopkins deserves credit for creating these characters. Then he should have stood back and let them keep right on talking. Their pillow talk would have been spellbinding."
Mick LaSalle
Mick LaSalle
Mick LaSalle is an American Mick LaSalle is an [[United States|American]] Mick LaSalle is an [[United States|American]] [[film reviewer] and the author of two books on pre-[[Motion Picture Production Code|Hays Code]] Hollywood...
of the San Francisco Chronicle
San Francisco Chronicle
thumb|right|upright|The Chronicle Building following the [[1906 San Francisco earthquake|1906 earthquake]] and fireThe San Francisco Chronicle is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California, but distributed throughout Northern and Central California,...
observed, "One's enjoyment of Last Chance Harvey will depend on how suitable one considers the pairing of these characters and how felicitous one considers the pairing of these performers. The latter is most important, because if you enjoy Hoffman and Thompson together, you might be able to overlook the ghastly prospect of poor Kate's throwing her life away on this guy. To be sure, Thompson and Hoffman are watchable and engaging, and that counts for something. But they don't look right as a couple, and each is more interesting in his or her scenes apart than they are together."
Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
graded the film B-, calling it "a losers-in-love comedy with no big surprises, but in the age of Internet dating, the prospect of two strangers trying this valiantly to connect in public carries a dash of romantic heroism . . . These two deserved the intimate incandescence of their own Before Sunrise, rather than the slightly generic sentimentality of a cross-Atlantic Marty
Marty (film)
Marty is a 1955 American film directed by Delbert Mann. The screenplay was written by Paddy Chayefsky, expanding upon his 1953 teleplay of the same name. The film stars Ernest Borgnine and Betsy Blair. The film enjoyed international success, winning the 1955 Academy Award for Best Picture and...
. But Hoffman and Thompson are each good enough to bring out a glow in the other."
Marjorie Baumgarten of the Austin Chronicle
Austin Chronicle
The Austin Chronicle is an alternative weekly, tabloid-style newspaper published every Thursday in Austin, Texas, United States. The paper is distributed through free news-stands, often at local eateries or coffee houses frequented by its targeted demographic...
said, "With its thin plot and its title character an American abroad in London, Last Chance Harvey comes across as something like a Before Sunrise for the less-than-nubile set. Were that writer/director Hopkins' dialogue and visualization as scintillating as Richard Linklater
Richard Linklater
-Early life:Linklater was born in Houston, Texas. He studied at Sam Houston State University and left midway through his stint in college to work on an off-shore oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico. While working on the rig he read a lot of literature, but on land he developed a love of film through...
's is in his Sunrise
Before Sunrise
Before Sunrise is a 1995 romantic drama film directed by Richard Linklater and written by Linklater and Kim Krizan. The film follows Jesse , a young American, and Céline , a young French woman, who meet on a train and disembark in Vienna, where they spend the night walking around the city and...
/Sunset
Before Sunset
Before Sunset is a 2004 American romantic drama film and the sequel to Before Sunrise . Like its predecessor, the film was directed by Richard Linklater. However, this time Linklater shares screenplay credit with both actors from the movies, Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy...
romances. Of course, the combined acting brilliance of Hoffman and Thompson could elevate the hoariest of clichés and turn almost anything they touch golden – and that is most often the case with Last Chance Harvey. But no one's skills can transcend the kooky banality of a trying-on-dresses montage or burnish the somewhat creepy way in which Harvey first comes on to Kate. Still, these two prove a pleasure to watch, and their conversations are realistic troves of give and take . . . Middle-aged romances are, sadly, hard to find on the silver screen, so it's with some hesitation I pronounce Last Chance Harvey not up to snuff. Yet if we are to see any more romances starring characters old enough to have witnessed both Hoffman and Thompson winning Oscars, it's our responsibility to go out and support this one."
Claudia Puig of USA Today
USA Today
USA Today is a national American daily newspaper published by the Gannett Company. It was founded by Al Neuharth. The newspaper vies with The Wall Street Journal for the position of having the widest circulation of any newspaper in the United States, something it previously held since 2003...
noted, "The film's biggest asset is the pitch-perfect performances of the two stars. They have a gentle rapport that unfolds convincingly after some initial testiness. It takes two consummate actors to make quickly escalating chemistry feel so natural. We find ourselves heartily rooting for them. Hoffman and Thompson rise above the sometimes obvious story arc, and the result is a surprisingly tender and appealing love story."
Joshua Rothkopf of Time Out New York rated the film three out of five stars and commented, "If anything can be said to be wrong with so benign an affair, it’s simply that Last Chance Harvey doesn’t feel much like cinema. Little excites the material visually; the film’s dully lensed Blighty lends nothing to the drama. But to watch Hoffman and Thompson work the lines is to witness two extremely unlikely stars recapture the essence of their appeal: The tiny neurotic is suddenly Romeo again, while the cool Brit melts in the light of affection. For some, that will be enough."
Awards and nominations
Dustin Hoffman was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy but lost to Colin FarrellColin Farrell
Colin James Farrell is an Irish actor, who has appeared in such film as Tigerland, Miami Vice, Minority Report, Phone Booth, The Recruit, Alexander and S.W.A.T....
in In Bruges
In Bruges
In Bruges is a 2008 black comedy crime film written and directed by Martin McDonagh. The film stars Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson as two hitmen in hiding, with Ralph Fiennes as their gangster boss. The film takes place—and was filmed—within the Belgian city of Bruges. In Bruges was...
. Emma Thompson was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy but lost to Sally Hawkins
Sally Hawkins
Sally Cecilia Hawkins is an English actress. Her performance as Poppy in the 2008 film Happy-Go-Lucky won her several international awards, including the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy...
in Happy-Go-Lucky
Happy-Go-Lucky
Happy-Go-Lucky is a 2008 British Comedy-drama film written and directed by Mike Leigh. The screenplay focuses on a cheerful and optimistic primary-school teacher and her relationships with those around her...
.
Home media
Anchor Bay EntertainmentAnchor Bay Entertainment
Anchor Bay Entertainment is a U.S. based home entertainment and production company and is a division of Starz Media, which is a unit of Starz, LLC. It was previously owned by IDT Entertainment until 2006 when IDT was purchased by Starz Media. Anchor Bay markets and sells feature films, series,...
released the film on a two-disc DVD set on May 5, 2009. On Disc One the film is presented in anamorphic widescreen
Anamorphic widescreen
Anamorphic widescreen, when applied to DVD manufacture, is a video process that horizontally squeezes a widescreen image so that it can be stored in a standard 4:3 aspect ratio DVD image frame. Compatible playback equipment can then re-expand the horizontal dimension to show the original widescreen...
format with an audio track in English and subtitles in English and Spanish. Bonus features include commentary with Joel Hopkins, Dustin Hoffman, and Emma Thompson, An Unconventional Love Story: The Making of Last Chance Harvey, and the theatrical trailer. Disc Two presents the film in fullscreen
Pan and scan
Pan and scan is a method of adjusting widescreen film images so that they can be shown within the proportions of a standard definition 4:3 aspect ratio television screen, often cropping off the sides of the original widescreen image to focus on the composition's most important aspects...
format.