Harry un ami qui vous veut du bien (2000)

User Rating:

7.2/10   

Director:

Dominik Moll

Writers:

Dominik Moll (scenario) and
Gilles Marchand (scenario) ...

Release Date:

15 August 2000 (France)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama | Thriller

Tagline:

Who needs enemies?

Plot:

Harry knew Michel in high school; they meet again by accident, Harry inserts himself in Michel's life... and things take a sinister turn.

Plot Keywords:

Writer | Writing | Vacation | Dentist | Multiple Murder

Awards:

Nominated for BAFTA Film Award. Another 7 wins & 13 nominations

Cast

Laurent Lucas	...	Michel
Sergi López	...	Harry (as Sergi Lopez)
Mathilde Seigner	...	Claire
Sophie Guillemin	...	Prune (Plum)
Liliane Rovère	...	Mother
Dominique Rozan	...	Father
Michel Fau	...	Eric
Victoire de Koster	...	Jeanne
Laurie Caminata	...	Sarah
Lorena Caminata	...	Iris

Also Known As:

Harry, He's Here to Help (International: English title) (UK) (original subtitled version)
Harry Is Here to Help (USA)
With a Friend Like Harry, un ami qui vous veut du bien (USA) (complete title)
With a Friend Like Harry... (USA)

MPAA:

Rated R for language, some violence and a scene of nudity.

Runtime:

117 min

Country:

France

Language:

French | Spanish

Colour:

Colour

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Singapore:PG | Iceland:16 | Malaysia:U | Argentina:13 | Australia:M | Chile:14 | France:U | Germany:12 | Hong Kong:IIA | Mexico:B | New Zealand:M | Portugal:M/16 | Spain:13 | Sweden:11 | Switzerland:14 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:14 (canton of Vaud) | UK:15 | USA:R

Filming Locations:

Château Hôtel Mont-Royal, La Chapelle-en-Serval, Oise, France

Company:

Canal+

Quotes:

[on how to deal with difficult parents]
Harry Ballestero: You have to overreact.

Movie Connections:

Edited into Making of 'Harry un ami qui vous veut du bien' (2001) (V)

Soundtrack:

Ramona

for all frustrated writers

What I got most out of this film was the Impulse to create and how it wars with the Need to procreate. Certainly Harry "Dick" was someone Michel could have dreamed up to entertain himself on a nearly unbearable hot & noisy road trip with his not so affectionate wife and his 3 too-beautiful and also not so affectionate daughters, and the subsequent "vacation" with them in a remote farmhouse that he is not too enthusiastically restoring. A masculine dream man is Harry, heterosexually vital, a wealthy man, and a man who lives out his most primal impulses in the name of love & friendship. Maybe even a mastermind albeit one who can never be perfect. As a somewhat thwarted writer myself, I saw this movie on one level as a fantasy, and on another as something akin to "Buffet Froid" or "Cul de Sac" (though not nearly as funny or surreal) or as other reviewers commented, to "Strangers on a Train" and "Something Wild." And as a call for all creative urges everywhere, I applaud Harry either as a figment or an all-too-real controlled psycho...