CINEMA: Last Chance Harvey

It’s not often you get a grown up love story as well written and as beautifully acted as this, so Harvey is something to savour, like a fine wine or cognac.

Director Joel Hopkins has picked two of the finest actors of their generations to play Harvey Shine (Dustin Hoffman), a New York jingle writer whose life has somehow flown away from him, and Kate (Emma Thompson) a witty, intelligent woman who has been let down by love too many times.

When Harvey comes to London for his daughter’s wedding he bumps into Kate and there is obviously an immediate attraction between them. It’s not the searing passion of immature love, but a connection at a deeper level that makes them so easy in each other’s company it is as if they have known each other for years. Over the course of a few days and brief hours spent together, the couple come to realise they are on the brink of something profoundly life-changing, but can Harvey make the commitment to be with Kate, and can Kate trust any man enough to really let him into her heart?

This is a slow, gentle, bittersweet movie all about nuance and tone and Hoffman and Thompson don’t put a foot wrong throughout. Indeed, in one scene where Kate sits in Somerset House courtyard watching life going on around her, observing the range of emotions that play across Thompson’s face as she steals herself for yet one more disappointment is deeply moving. The location work is wonderful, London, and especially the South Bank, have never looked more cosmopolitan and inviting, while a supporting cast including Eileen Atkins as Kate’s fussy mum add a lighter touch to proceedings.

So, a mature, adult film with an upbeat ending suggesting it really is never too late to fall in love and there are second chances for us all.

Dee Pilgrim