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Harry, He's Here To Help [2000] | ![Harry, He's Here To Help [2000]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/517A1XBE3XL._SL75_.jpg)
 enlarge | Director: Dominik Moll
Actors: Laurent Lucas, Sergi Lopez, Mathilde Seigner, Sophie Guillemin, Liliane Rovère
Studio: Artificial Eye
Category: Video
List Price: £19.99
Buy New: £9.99
You Save: £10.00 (50%)
New (3) Used (4) from £3.69
Avg. Customer Rating:  5 reviews
Sales Rank: 507
Format: Pal, Subtitled, Widescreen
Languages: French (Original Language), Spanish (Original Language)
Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
Media: VHS Tape
Number Of Items: 1
Running Time: 112
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 7.3 x 4.2 x 1.1
EAN: 5021866195209
ASIN: B00005JI09
Theatrical Release Date: 1999
Release Date: May 21, 2001
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: BRAND NEW SAME DAY DISPATCH BEFORE 4PM DIRECT FROM THE UK!!!!!!
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| Customer Reviews:
Friendship, obsession, murder: A first-rate movie August 12, 2007
This French film starts with a car ride. Michel (Laurent Lucas) and his wife and three young daughters are driving from Paris to a rundown country cottage they bought and hope to fix up over time. It's hot, the three little girls are fussing and crying and kicking the backs of the seats. Michel is trying to stay calm. His wife is upset as she tries to settle the girls.
The movie ends with another car ride. Michel is driving the family back to Paris. He looks with great love at his wife as she dozes next to him. He looks back at his children with tenderness and contentment as they lie next to each other sound asleep. He looks at the manuscript of a long story he has written.
In between shouldn't happen to anyone.
At a rest stop on the family's drive to the cottage, Michel encounters by chance Harry, (Sergi Lopez) a man who went to school with him, a man he can't remember but Harry remembers him. When Michel was in school he wrote stories, and Harry remembers every word. Harry stands a little too close, shakes hands a little too long, is a little too pleasant. He's traveling with his girlfriend, Plum, but somehow manages to be invited to the cottage for drinks. Michel, when Harry asks, says he works as a teacher in Paris. What does Harry do? He used to live off his father, he says, but "then my father died and now I manage his money."
Harry believes that every problem needs a solution. When Michel's old car breaks down, Harry buys him a new 4x4, far out of proportion as a gift from a friend. Michel and his wife protest, but Harry says "Why complicate life? I wanted to give you a present." Harry wants Michel to be happy and to write, and he wants Michel's friendship. And problems need solutions. Michel's parents at times make Michel unhappy. After they die in a car accident, Michel's brother finds one of Michel's old stories and makes fun of it. Later Harry explains that Michel's brother won't be returning to the cottage, that he decided to hitchhike back to the city where he lives.
Harry decides that his girlfriend, Plum, is a problem for his relationship with Michel that needs a solution. And then Harry decides that Michel's wife and small children are a problem.
This is a first-rate movie, part thriller, partly a study in murderous obsession. Laurent Lucas does a fine job as Michel. Michel is an honest guy who loves his family, who gave up trying to write, who is frazzled, who is just a little weak. He can't deal firmly with his parents, he tends to let his wife discipline their kids when they act up, and he finds it difficult to just say No to Harry as Harry gradually works his way into Michel's life. Lucas is a good looking actor but he's not pretty. He's believable as the character. Sergi Lopez as Harry brings a great deal of calm, unsettling friendliness to his role. When he stops smiling, you know the character is going to do something unpleasant. Lopez played Sneaky in Dirty Pretty Things.
 Intriguing and surprisingly convincing July 18, 2007
This is a fascinating exploration of a situation we all experience in real life: someone tries so hard to be helpful that the result is exruciatingly embarrassing. The difference is that in real life the situation returns to normality before things get excessive or out of control.
I will only hint at the story without specifics to avoid spoiling it. The hero, Michel, is struggling to bring up 3 baby girls; his relationships with his wife and parents are suffering, and there are clues that he doesn't have the strength or sense to get his life under control (for example he buys a holiday cottage in need of renovation that seems way beyond him and wastes much of his holiday on a huge diy task that is completely unnecessary (though relevant in other ways). He bumps into an old school acquaintance who tries to sort out his life, first in a friendly way, then becoming gratuitous, pushy and finally insanely obsessive.
The unfolding of events is fascinating as you feel, on the hero's behalf, a mixture of gratitude, bemusement, fear, embarrassment and revulsion at Harry's behaviour. Two features worth watching out for are the irony of the ending and Harry's acting. Right from the first meeting there is something exquisitely, indefinably, not quite right about his carefully groomed enthusiastic smile.
It's worth commenting on two negative points made in other reviews. The one about the film being confusing is inexplicable. The reviewer must have had an off day. This film is very easy to understand although it rewards a bit of thinking to get the most out of it. The other comment was the lack of Harry's motive. Although Harry's character is so extreme none of us need fear ever meeting someone quite like him, it is true that people who dress and speak well can lose all grip on reality and become overwhelmed by an obsession, in this case Harry's belief that he has the solution to Michel's problems. There is a an incident near the end when Harry reveals his feelings while he is alone in his car. If Harry was meant to be an inexplicable nutcase, there is no way this incident would have been included. He is meant to be convincing and, sadly for humanity, he is.
I am sure you will enjoy "Harry, he's here to help" unless you can't stand subtitles or slow moving films.
Thoroughly enjoyable! March 28, 2007
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
It was a happy coincidence that I saw this film, late one night on TV. I am writing a thriller and read the synopsis on here. Hoping it might inspire me ...and it did. As one of the reviewers rightly stated, the motives of Harry are unclear, however this was not an issue for me at all. The film builds tension confidently as we are drawn further and further, deeper and deeper. It seems to be labelled as a drama when in my mind it has all the callings of a thriller. It keeps you wondering every step of the way...whats going to happen next.
I have no idea what the other reviewer means by getting confused and wondering who is who...there are only a handful of characters and no room for confusion.Everything about the film is straightforward yet the motives and actions of the antagonists are not.
I highly recommend this film to anyone who likes a quiet dark thriller with a sprinkly of subtle black comedy.
Gives ironic meaning to "The Dagger in the Close of Night." February 12, 2005
8 out of 9 found this review helpful
Michel (Laurent Lucas), a French ESL teacher on holiday with his family, unexpectedly runs into Harry (Sergi Lopez) when the family stops for lunch on the way to their remote country house. Harry recognizes Michel immediately as a former school acquaintance and the author of "The Dagger in the Close of Night," a poem Michel wrote in high school and which Harry has memorized. Michel does not remember Harry at all but invites him to spend the night with the family in the country. The relationship becomes more complex as the stay is extended, and both Michel and Harry begin to change. Suspense builds, leading to a grand climax. This darkly amusing noir drama is filled with irony. Michel and his wife Claire (Mathilde Seigner), two ordinary people, are the parents of three screaming and bickering little girls, and they never seem to get enough time together, so their invitation to Harry is surprising. They need a vacation, yet they are reluctant to ask Harry and Prune, the stereotyped, clueless blonde (Sophie Guillemin) accompanying him, to leave when they stay too long. Harry is distressed to see that Michel no longer has the leisure or the motivation to write but has no clue that this may be a choice, and he actively encourages Michel to resume writing, even while in the bathroom. Other obvious ironies evolve with ensuing events. Directed by Dominik Moll, who also wrote the screenplay with Gilles Marchand, the film develops slowly. The accident of Harry's meeting with Michel is so bizarre that the viewer may wonder if the meeting is a set-up, and Harry's motivation for his strange behavior is not completely clear, both problems creating more a sense of puzzlement than suspense. Matthieu Poirot-Delpech's cinematography of the setting in southern France and David Whittaker's romantically moody piano and string music help create a sense of mystery. Sergi Lopez is a terrific Harry, a bumbling and seemingly good-hearted admirer of Michel, and Laurent Lucas as Michel is a suitably frazzled and somewhat overwhelmed teacher on vacation. The film is fun to watch, but I found the lack of clarity regarding motivation to be a problem in the building of suspense and the black humor not strong enough to carry the rest of the film (3.5 stars) Mary Whipple
Weird July 11, 2001
5 out of 15 found this review helpful
This a complicated french film, not made any easier with the subtitles, but with an enthralling plot. At first it appears that a beautiful friendship will develop, but it becomes much darker..... The plot can a bit confusing to follow, trying to figure out what has happened to who, why so-and-so has done that and who was that anyway, but in the end you can see that it is quite straight forward really.Saying all that, this is a wonderful, engrossing film, with black humour a plenty and that little bit of violence that is quite unnecessary. Let's hope all the french aren't like Harry! If you haven't seen it, buy it. well worth the effort.
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