Whatever Happened to Harold Smith? (2001)

Fresh and Exciting

Fantastic!

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

I saw this movie 'by accident' last night - a friend of a friend had an old video copy - and thought it was absolutely brilliant. And I had a lousy hangover! I hadn't even heard about it before - I don't know if it ever had a proper cinema release but it clearly wasn't the huge hit it deserved to be. I can't believe some of the negative comments I've read about it. Were they watching the same film? I thought the story, the characters and the whole 70's feel of it was amazing - even if the 70's I recall wasn't quite as colourful as that. Tom Courtenay was superb as the enigmatic Harold, likewise Steven Fry and David Thewliss. Harold's speech about the tortoise was a classic. I noticed you can't even buy this film on DVD or video now but my advice is if it's ever on TV check it out!

Sheffield 1977 and 18 year old pen-pusher Vince Smith fancies himself as a Saturday Night Fever styled disco king, but the object of his affection, Joanna, is more interested in Johnny Rotton than John Travolta.While spineless Vince wrestles with his conscience, his downtrodden father, Harold, reveals a hitherto undeclared talent for magic that is nearer to the X-Files than the spoon-bending antics of Uri Geller. And when a fatal incident in a residential home brings him to the publics attention, Joanna's pompous scientist father surprisingly declares him a walking miracle! Featuring cameos from such '70s icons as Angela Rippon, John Craven, Keith Chegwin, Jan Leeming, Alan Whicker and Lulu (as Vince's wayward mum), Courtenay is a likeable Smith, and the film has all the ingredients for a warm, quirky romantic comedy, but sadly, it all fails to gel.Whatever happened indeed!

I also had the opportunity of seeing this film at the London Film Festival, but not having grown up in the 70s approached it with few expectations and even less knowledge of what the period was like. The actors all turned in good performances, with Tom Courtenay especially memorable. The direction was slick and the film consequently flowed smoothly. Some jokes were hilarious and reflected the overall strength of the screenplay, which was packed with novel ideas and witticisms. All in all a very friendly and fun film that I would highly recommend.

I had the opportunity of seeing this film at the London Film Festival and as I grew up in the 1970s, it seemed like an interesting premise.Sadly, 'Whatever Happened to Harold Smith' is another in a long line of British cinema disasters and is destined to be lambasted by the critics and ignored by the public.The makers of this film are so lazy that they feel that stringing together a bunch of cultural references around a shallow and uninteresting story and adding a big soundtrack is enough for a surefire success. Well, despite the ridiculously sycophantic applause of Saturday night's audience, the release in February or March will illustrate that this is simply not good enough.The performances are passable although Stephen Fry does little more than play himself and the lead actor is so inconsequential that I can barely remember his performance.However, it is the cultural references that really grate - these include a car painted like Starsky and Hutch's, not one but two examples of Hai Karate adverts, a ridiculous take off of the opening of Saturday Night Fever and a variety of newsreaders from the period clearly appearing 20 years too old. It's remarkable that they didn't manage to squeeze spangles in somewhere.However, the single worst thing about this film is the way that it portrays punks as criminals or deadbeats. Having been a disaffected youth into this music myself, I don't recognise these characters at all and this moral line on a little rebellion leaves a very nasty taste indeed.