Last Chance Harvey

Dustin Hoffman is so incredibly versatile it’s ridiculous, Emma Thompson is amazing, and hey! It’s the grandmother from What A Girl Wants! Yay paranoid, cancer-surviving busybodies thinking their neighbor is Poland’s answer to Jack the Ripper. And hooray for directed-and-written-by productions! Joel Hopkins did a fantastic job here.

The delighful story of Harvey, who has tried all his life to get by but seems to miss every opportunity, who gets one last chance to make things right in his broken family and Kate, whose forementioned mother keeps her hen-pecked and isolated, and their chance encounter that lends them the courage to stand up for themselves and fall in love again.

A short analysis of Hoffman’s character: Harvey’s life passed him by without giving him a real chance to stay attached…he studied piano and wanted to be a jazz pianist, but never got the chance so he started writing jingles for commercials…but computer/sound engineering came along and made hand-written jingles too expensive…his wife divorced him because he stopped being fun (a possible byproduct of “settling” for writing jingles). It just seems so sad that he was never really given an opportunity to be truly happy until Kate (suffering from a similar problem of life passing her by) gives him the courage to stand up for himself.

Great soundtrack by Dickon Hinchliffe featuring the buskers (British slang for street performers) Kitty, Daisy & Lewis.

An 80 year old, horny, novice writer…”so lubrious…”…hilariously wrong…

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