Libramedi Intense, gripping, stylish and poignant

Stevecorp Don't listen to the negative reviews

Breakinger A Brilliant Conflict

Catangro After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

kenjha Traveling with his family to a vacation home, a man runs into a former high school classmate. It sets up an interesting premise, but fails to follow through with a satisfactory conclusion, with the biggest question mark being the character of Harry. Harry is established as a mysterious and creepy character, but the film never explains what makes him tick. Why does a fabulously wealthy fellow do the bizarre things he does? Directing only his second film, Moll does a good job of building the tension at a deliberate pace. Lopez brings the appropriate sense of creepiness to his portrayal of Harry, and is well contrasted by the easy-going family man played by Lucas.

Turfseer 'Harry' is a story about an ordinary middle-class couple, Michel and Claire and their three young children. They're on their way to visit Michel's parents when they pull over at a rest stop. While Michel is in the bathroom, he's approached by Harry who identifies himself as a long lost high school acquaintance. Harry alludes to a poem that Michel wrote in high school along with a sci-fi novel as well as pointing to an incident in which Michel chipped his tooth while rough-housing during a soccer match.The problem is that Michel is unable to recognize Harry and this crucial plot point doesn't really ring true. It's unlikely that Michel would forget about Harry completely especially when we later learn that Michel's dentist father did some bridge work for him and Michel's brother Eric also can recall who he is. Somehow, the film's scenarists implausibly suggest that Michel has become emotionally stunted to the point where he's lost some of his basic memories.Harry is traveling with his bimbo girlfriend, Plum, and manage to get themselves invited back to Michel and Claire's summer house (the trip to Michel's parents is cancelled when one of their daughters develops a fever). Before you know it, Harry and Plum are sleeping over. Harry is positively creepy as a good number of his conversations involve one kind of sexual innuendo or another. Claire is a bit suspicious but Michel passively allows Harry to insinuate himself into their lives. It becomes obvious that Harry is totally obsessed with Michel, especially when he keeps encouraging him to start writing again—an avocation Michel dispensed with early on during high school.At first it appears that Michel will become the target of Harry's creepy obsession. But soon we see that it's Michel's parents Harry has it in for. He ends up showing up at their apartment late at night pretending that Michel is in trouble and coaxes the parents to follow him in his car to Michel and Claire's. On the way, Harry maneuvers his car behind the parents' car and manages to push them off the road, down a cliff. While the parents are killed, we never learn why. The only clue that's offered is that Harry was upset over some poor dental work that Michel's father was responsible for in the distant past.The death of the parents puts Michel into a tailspin. He closets himself away in the bathroom and begins obsessing about trying to finish his 'Flying Monkey' short story which he began in high school. Claire pays a visit to Harry at a hotel where Plum and he are now staying. She mentions to Harry that Michel is trying to write again and crazy Harry thinks that's a good thing. But Claire also makes it clear that Harry's no longer welcome back at the house. Meanwhile, Michel's brother Eric has shown up for the parents' funeral and Harry ends up doing him in too.The denouement makes little sense. Harry returns to Michel and Claire's summer house and kills Plum after she tells him she wants to start a family. Instead of hiding the body himself, he asks Michel to help him dispose of it by throwing it down a well in the front yard. After Michel helps Harry to dispose of Plum, Harry then simply asks Michel to help him slaughter Claire and the kids. Did you ever hear of a serial killer who becomes obsessed with one family member but wants to kill everyone else? In real life, serial killers end up killing everybody but not here! Michel comes to his senses and stabs Harry with a knife; he then throws him down the well and then shovels dirt so that the bodies will not be found.All's well that ends well when Claire asks Michel what happened to Harry and Plum and he tells them they had to leave but left "sending their love". The upside is that Harry stoked Michel's creative fires after all. He begins writing a new novel entitled "The Eggs" (Harry earlier had spoken approvingly of eating an egg every morning to help with virility). Claire tells Michel she read his new story and thinks it great that he's begun writing again.One problem is left unexplored. What happened with the investigation into Eric's disappearance? Wouldn't the police start poking around after Eric's friends start asking about him? And wouldn't they look at Michel as a possible suspect, especially after the recent mysterious deaths of their parents? Some internet posters have offered the dubious theory that Harry is actually the altar ego of Michel and that he is the actual murderer. I don't have the space to debunk that theory here but plenty of well-informed postings refute the entire fanciful idea.'A Friend Like Harry' expects you to figure out Harry's motives in trying to kill Michel's family as well as his obsession with Michel without much evidence. Yes, there are a few tantalizing clues thrown out here and there but the antagonist's motivations are intentionally left quite vague. And the fact that Harry makes no effort to hide his murderous nature from Michel at the film's end is almost laughable.'Harry' is a bit slow-moving but basically keeps your interest until the climax. Sergi Lopez can do little in the part of the demented Harry since the script calls for a character that's not plausible. Equally implausible is the character of Michel who never seems to have a clue that Harry wants to do harm to his family until the very end. Director Dominik Moll is obviously aiming for some Hitchcock-like suspense but leaves us with characters that do not add up in the end.

BJBatimdb This movie is a real slow burn but is never less than engrossing, despite the utter mundanity and sparseness of the script. The camera-work is very still and undramatic too, and one gets the feeling the director knew that the menace would seep slowly but effectively into this film without flashy cuts or melodrama from the actors. It certainly works and everyone emerges with kudos from this underplayed but sublimely creepy movie. Everything - from Michel's initial chance-encounter with Harry, to the way Harry insinuates himself into the lives of Michel's family - is completely believably and there are no reactions which mark themselves out as being mere plot or character cheats. It all builds to a similarly believable climax, all the more disturbing for its realism and restrained camera-work and direction. Even the subtitles are restrained - making this a great movie for film-lovers who aren't so keen on taking their eyes off the actors for long! It's not scary in the 'jump' sense, but is effective and foreboding.

José Luis Rivera Mendoza (jluis1984) The debut of french director Dominik Moll is a brilliant movie that follows Hitchcock's school of classic suspense to the letter, while keeping the directors own modern style in a psychological thriller reminiscent of David Lynch.Laurent Lucas stars as Michel, father of a middle-class family that goes on vacation to their house in rural France. On a gas station he finds Harry (played by Sergi López), a rich man who went to high school with Michel and that is traveling towards Switzerland with his girlfriend Prune (beautiful Sophie Guillemin). Michel invites Harry to his house, because even when he can't remember who Harry is, it seems as if Harry remembers everything about Michel.The problems of Michel with his parents and his wife Claire (Mathilde Seigner) will come to light as Harry intrusion becomes more apparent and Claire begins to wonder how healthy is Harry's influence over his husband.The story moves at a slow pace building the suspense and the tension between the characters to a maximum. Nevertheless, the direction and the script make sure that this slow rhythm will not become boring or tiresome and the movie works very wheel filled with interesting scenes that give everything you NEED to know about the characters, but not everything you WANT to know about them.This classic take on suspense and mystery, that many have tried with mixed results, works very good here thanks to the wonderful script that adds scenes of bizarre surrealism that while serve the purpose of breaking the suspense, they also increase the tension and mystery surrounding their characters.It's worthy to mention the superb acting of those involved. Lucas, Seigner and López have a good chemistry on screen that clearly helps the movie to be as powerful as it is.By the end of the movie the tension is at it's peak and the script makes the most of it giving a brilliant finale that even when it is very simple it is both mysterious and rewarding.This is not the typical thriller with horror/suspense. It's a modern update to the classic suspense style of film-making that Hitchcock did so well. 8/10