This is a unique film, and I love it. It is a feel-good, wholesome story about desire. And don’t we all love stories about desire. The Greeks had three words for love, and all three dimensions abide and coalesce in this script: a journey into the unknown, attraction, loss and regaining. Everything that could go wrong did go wrong, but in the end, all turned out right.
Harvey Shine (Dustin Hoffman) is a divorced New Yorker who comes to London for his daughter’s wedding. Enter the script’s updating of Jane Austen (social comedy), Henry James (cross cultural styles) and James Joyce (two people living parallel lives that meet). So the first thing about this charming film is the fun of recognising all the allusions to other stories and authors, where love emerges against all the set-backs in an affirmative flame of a resounding ‘yes’. This is Romeo and Juliet for adults.We follow Harvey and Kate Walker (Emma Thompson) separately through the streets of London for most of the first half of the film. Then Harvey, who only stayed for the wedding ceremony, misses his return flight because of heavy traffic. This loses him his job – creating musical jingles for TV ads. But the unkindest cut of all was his daughter Suzi asking her step-father to give her away. Harvey Shine was not the shining light at the wedding, which strengthened his perception that he was an embarrassment to his family.
Down-in-the-dumps and feeling in the doghouse he goes to an airport bar for a drink. And there in Heathrow he sees the lady from the Statistics Office whom he had brushed aside on arrival. He begins to tell her about his day. At first she doesn’t want to hear, preferring to finish her novel and be left alone. She is a bit of a loner, looking after her demanding mother, and reading books by Anita Harman, an obvious reference to Anita Brookner, whose forty-something characters resemble Kate accurately: the reflective London loner who has given up on love.
Harvey persists, and they eventually share a lunch. The rest is a meeting of minds that leads to a happy ending, although when she asks Harvey in the final scene where he lives, he says he ‘is in transition’.
In terms of plot, character, settings and dialogue this is a heartwarming film that holds a mirror up to modern urban living. There is a stark contrast between the socialising scenes and the honest, direct and personal sharing scenes. The script reinforces traditional family values, while affirming contemporary conditions – I’ve never seen so many mobile phone calls on a screen. Harvey’s father-of-the-bride speech touches on how children suffer most from separated parents.
Any niggles? The viewpoint is a bit lop-sided in favour of Harvey, and on reflection, it’s hard to imagine a kind, intelligent woman like Kate falling for a failed loser that is Harvey. (He really wanted to become a jazz pianist, but didn’t have what it takes.)
Notwithstanding these and other implausible bits, Dustin Hoffman and Emma Thompson are in top form. The acting alone, and the second-chance plot for people in their forties and fifties, are worth taking a risk with this delightful comedy of manners on the way we live now.