Hey folks, Harry here with the Lovely Elaine and her look at a French film entitled HARRY, HE'S HERE TO HELP... and I must say it's nice to have a title that the press can use for the next article on me instead of titles like, LET'S GET HARRY or THE TROUBLE WITH HARRY... Unfortunately I've never had any dealings with a Sally or a Henderson family... But take note you foreign film going press types... new title for your articles... Hehehehe.... sorry.... For some sad reason I have a rather unfortunate feeling this won't be coming to Austin... which is not tres cool, que sera mon ami...
HARRY, HE’S HERE TO HELP (France, 2000)
It’s funny how one sometimes discovers a trend in films. I don’t watch that many French flicks, but judging from the handful I’ve seen recently, I’d say they are developing a manipulative, homosexual streak. Consider the evidence. First there were the calculating gays of "Remembrance of Things Past" (A la recherche du temps perdu). Then there was the fascinating, but ultimately rather unhealthy relationship between Jean-Pierre Lorit and Bernard Giraudeau in "A Question of Taste" (Une affaire de gout), and the harmful mind games played by Giraudeau (again) on Malik Zidi in "Water Drops on Burning Rocks" (Gouttes d’eau sur pierres brulantes). And now there’s "Harry, He’s Here to Help" (Harry, un ami qui vous veut du bien), in which a seemingly friendly but really quite obsessed guy comes to exert a worrisome influence on an old school friend of his.
Hmm.
"Harry, He’s Here to Help" is the second film by Dominik Moll, who previously gave us "Intimacy" (Intimité). It was co-written by Gilles Marchand, who also co-wrote the powerful "Human Resources" (Ressources humaines). In this Moll-Marchand collaboration, thirty-something Michel, husband of the intense Claire and father of three whining daughters, bumps into a glamorous old classmate named Harry, who appears to remember every little detail about their school days and seems keen on renewing their acquaintance. For his part, Michel can’t remember Harry, but the proof of their acquaintance is so staggering that he cannot but accept the warmth that is bestowed upon him. He even feels compelled to invite Harry and his buxom girlfriend Prune to the house in the mountains where he and his family are headed. There, in an out-of-the-way place where no one can hear them scream, a ménage à quatre unfolds which makes it clear why Prune calls Harry "Dick" and why men should rely on their wives’ instincts a bit more. Essentially, Harry takes over Michel’s life, turning him into a direction which his wife doesn’t like (that of the writer who still has some unfinished work to attend to) and which the audience knows to be wrong, even if it does temporarily seem to please Michel. Meanwhile, quite a few people go missing, and one continually has the feeling some more are going to disappear.
"Harry, He’s Here to Help" has many strong points. From the toe-curling pre-credits opening, which will make you think twice about having children, to the hilariously tender looks Harry throws at Michel and the way Michel’s mother bitches about her daughter-in-law, the first half of the film features heaps of comic moments, many of which will make you laugh out loud. Sadly, the film loses a bit of steam in the second half, which purports to be a thriller but isn’t quite suspenseful enough to pull it off. Although there are a handful of eerie moments (the bathroom scenes, the close-ups of Harry’s eyes and Michel’s creepy nightmare spring to mind), "Harry" fails to get that Hitchcock-like quality which is presumably what Moll had in mind when he made the film. To make matters worse, the ending rings so false that it makes the rest of the film look shallow in retrospect. Which is odd, given that the subject matter (obsession, stress, inspiration, and liberation from that which keeps us from being inspired) is far from superficial.
"Harry, He’s Here to Help" is very French in that it underplays the potentially dramatic scenes. For example, the car chase that marks the beginning of the disappearance of the minor characters ends in a wreck but not an explosion. Likewise, the moments of greatest emotional intensity occur not when the characters are facing off but when they are alone, and when the inevitable showdowns finally do take place, they start and end so abruptly one barely has time to recognise them as showdowns. The lack of emotional outbursts is both powerful and underwhelming. It’s refreshing at first, but ultimately one finds oneself wishing for an outspoken battle of wills rather than an implied one – with a big, long fight to end it all.
It could be that Hollywood will take care of that. I haven’t received confirmation of it yet, but I fully expect "Harry" to get an American remake. Don’t all halfway-decent French flicks get an American remake? This one will in all likelihood feature extended and intensified showdowns between the four protagonists and a car crash ending in a no-holds-barred explosion. Oh, and Michel will be turned into Michelle in order to rid the film of that homoerotic undertone, and there will be even less suspense in it than there is in the original.
Which brings me back to the lack of suspense. It may sound obscure in the light of what I said a few paragraphs ago, but the absence of creepiness doesn’t actually mar the film. For one thing, there is enough humour to offset the relative lack of suspense; if things don’t get ominous, they don’t exactly get dull either. For another, it gives one time to work out whom the actors look like. It so happens that all the main actors in "Harry, He’s Here to Help" resemble other, more famous actors. For instance, Sergi Lopez ("An Affair of Love"), who plays Harry, looks a lot like Bill Pullman, especially when he smiles. Michel impersonator Laurent Lucas (Thibault from "Pola X") is a cross between Rupert Everett, Liam Gallagher and Mark Wahlberg, who looks more like Wahlberg as it gets darker around him. (Watch the film to see what I mean.) On the women’s side, Mathilde Seigner (Claire) reminds one of her sister, Emmanuelle, while Sophie Guillemin (Prune) bears a striking resemblance to Sophie Dahl, Britain’s far-from-skinny answer to the supermodel phenomenon. The first thing one sees of Guillemin is a close-up of her heaving bosom, and for the rest of the film she is made to wear skimpy outfits that should please the male viewers amongst you. She gets her kit off halfway through the story, and if that isn’t a reason to see the film, I don’t know what is.
"Harry, He’s Here to Help" is by no means a flawless film, but it’s entertaining enough to be worth your while. See it when it reaches a screen near you, before some Hollywood hack lays his hands on it and inflicts an Americanised version not featuring Sophie Guillemin on you.
Elaine
