Last Chance Harvey (2008)
In London for his daughter's wedding, a struggling jingle-writer, Harvey Shine, misses his plane to New York, and thus loses his job. While drowning his sorrows in the airport pub, Harvey meets Kate, a British government worker stuck in an endless cycle of work, phone calls from her mother, and blind dates. A connection forms between the unhappy pair, who soon find themselves falling in love.
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Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!
Just perfect...
Admirable film.
It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.
A cute, bit of nothing romantic drama about two unlucky in love middle agers. Dustin Hoffman plays a new York jingle writer in London for his daughters wedding and Emma Thompson is a British government worker. They meet at an airport bar and manage to transform each others life.This was so well acted that the beginning was actually painful to watch; both characters are so uncomfortable and socially awkward, that you really feel sorry for them. Hoffman is excellent as his world crumbles, doing his best to hide his devastation over several life crises. This also managed to stay away from any movie clichés while providing a fun tour of London. 11.13
This movie largely fell flat with the only redeeming feature for me the supposed mass murdering Pole living next door to the mother. Otherwise the main characters were generally monosyllabic losers in life with very little chemistry between each other. Emma Thompson may be elegant and endearing and Dustin Hoffman may be Dustin Hoffman, but there wasn't much for them to do here. I got their sadness, and I got how they found solace in each other, but there was nothing happening here, not in the plot, not in the dialogue, and not in the clichés of an 86 year old being crass or a couple of adults having to sit at a kids table. Bah.
No one will mistake this for a great movie, but you know, it accomplishes what it sets out to do. An American writer of TV commercials (Dustin Hoffman) is fired from his job long distance, and finds something like love across the pond with a spinsterly, yet attractive survey taker at Heathrow Airport. Kate Walker (Emma Thompson) is dealing with her own self confidence issues, constantly fending off her mum who routinely calls to check in and see what's going on. This would have been pap in less skillful hands, but Hoffman pours on the winsome charm to get a reaction from Thompson's character, and together they manage to pass for a couple of strangers who are looking for love and manage to find it. No coarse language, no gratuitous sex, and no distracting violence - who would have imagined it? "Last Chance Harvey" works because it resembles real life, or as Harvey would insist - "No. It is real life".
This is not a terribly memorable movie; the plot has been done a thousand times. It hangs its hat on its stars and they do a nice job. Dustin Hoffman, the Last Chance in this film, puts in a nice performance as a man who has never been happy, even with moderate success. He is a burned out yes man who sees each day as a chore. HIs female counterpart has also given up on life, her youth past her. The thing is that submerged in them are two really interesting people who can have fun if they allow themselves. The first half of the movie is one uncomfortable scene after another as Hoffman tries without enthusiasm to be a positive force in his daughter's life after his wife has pretty much excluded him. It isn't that he doesn't deserve this treatment. He hasn't given much. Anyway, true love doesn't run smooth and when he meets Thompson, getting together requires a great deal of effort because of great baggage carried by the two of them Fate steps in as well and makes things even more difficult. All this said, it's still a charming film and worth a look.