the audience applauded

Fantastic!

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

Just intense enough to provide a much-needed diversion, just lightweight enough to make you forget about it soon after it’s over. It’s not exactly “good,” per se, but it does what it sets out to do in terms of putting us on edge, which makes it … successful?

Handsome Harry (2009)The title is perfectly understated, and a bit misleading, whatever your first impressions. Harry is the main character, a man around 60 with memories of a brutal beating he and some fellow sailors gave a mate of theirs in the Viet Nam era. Long ago. The main thread of the movie follows him as he revisits each of the participants, including the man who was beaten.With such a solid structure you are in some ways hooked. Each encounter has its own twists. And each time we see, through flashbacks, a sharpening picture of what really happened. It's a fascinating building of a story, even with some weakness here and there in the writing and acting.And key to it all is a misguided homophobia, and what turns out to be a more complicated fear of being outed and a little self-loathing. Some of the characters Harry visits are finely tuned types, well acted. We see how everyone has changed, and how their sense of who they are, alone and to each other, has also changed.Most of all we see Harry come to terms with his own demons on this. Jamey Sheridan plays him with studied restraint, and yet gives the man enough believable nuances to keep it honest. The biggest name in the cast is the first of Harry's encounters, Steve Buscemi, but if you are a fan of his (as you should be) be prepared that his role is really limited. And John Savage appears as one of the group, too. There are some strains in the other actors' parts either because of their ability to pull off a mostly talking movie or because the writing itself stumbles. In particular you'll see Harry barge into a classroom and interrupt the teacher and sort of take over the podium for a minute, and it's so out of character and unlikely it almost punctures the whole movie.But hang in there. The final chapter or two is intense and written with poignancy. And it might surprise some viewers. A strong finish to a good, sometimes lugubrious, somewhat strained telling.

.....in a new subclass of male / female sexuality: "STI-FLEXUALS."(( "STI-FLEXUALITY"......it's a whole new word....a whole new descriptive title for a subclass of human sexuality. Beginning today, there is not only Heterosexuality....Homosexuality....Bisexuality..., BUT also this new subcategory. And peculiar to this subclass of "Stifled Sexuality" comes a new label for the Killer Fear that suppressing such feelings and behavior generates in us: "CLOSETOPHOBIA"....fear of coming out of the you-know-what )).(( And when, in your less than fully happy life, events arise which force you to realize that it is YOU who have Stifled...no, Crushed...the God-given purpose in life of another human being (in very fact, the Love of Your Life), you become nothing less than a Shattered human being. Your only...ONLY hope being the possibility of Forgiveness" )).Given us by this film....this writer....this director and, ultimately, by Harry himself....are vividly disturbing scenes of the devastating emotional and physical damages that such "Stifling" of our own sexual needs and desires can bring about. Following is just a very short list of some of those damages:Very often, unhappiness and a sense of not having succeeded on the part of any spouse caught up in a marriage to a "Sti-flexual" partner (divorce is often the outcome).Frequently, lack of closeness and connection between the "Sti-flexual" parent and his / her children, if any.In most cases there is the despair and sense of non-worth which can, for years, smolder within the "Sti-flexual" (even suicide has been a drastic result).Violence (often fatal) by one or more persons against an individual(s).Lastly in situations like this, successful attempts at "Making it Right" or "Making up for Lost Time" are rarely achieved...or come far too late. So ask yourself after viewing this film -- Has Harry succeeded in doing so....or hasn't he?If you learn nothing else from this film, take away this: What will ALWAYS stay with a someone like Harry is the ever hurting realization that this lost part of his (maybe Our) life has become just a throwaway....instead of a sweet and wonderful what-might-have-been. YET, can there still be REAL happiness in this kind of a man's future? Perhaps....perhaps. And in this regard, there is a based-on-true-life motion picture story of just such a salvation, now making its way through the new releases circuit. Aaahh, so perhaps all potential, and real, Harrys should be making their way to see this big-star, and likely award winning film, titled, "BEGINNERS."Thanks, Harry, the trip's been fun!(( PS--So, has this movie been talking about only Harry....or perhaps Me....or perhaps You, as well? ))****

This is a small gem of a film with a memorable ensemble cast practicing the best of low key modern American film acting style, a brilliant script, a great story that unravels like the best of mysteries and a solid, secure director who understands that the film isn't about camera moves and quick cuts. She's not afraid to let the camera sit unmoving, with a cruel, unsympathetic stand for as long as it takes to help the film breathe or to reveal a hidden moment. The film is decidedly NOT a gay film unless, of course, you're an actual homophobe. It's about moral courage, or more properly, the lack of it when a good and decent man succumbs to powerful social and psychological pressure and unwittingly sells out a friend and lover.

I just saw this movie and not knowing much about it, I didn't know what to expect. Whatever my expectations, the movie had surpassed them. The cast is brilliant, the dialog tight, the building of the story towards the climax careful, sensitive and moving.It's the story of a man, "Handsome" Harry (Jamie Sheridan) who didn't know his own life was a failure until he gets a call from an old navy friend (Steve Buscemi), forcing him to examine his life. It leads him on a road trip during which he seeks absolution - officially on his friend's behalf or maybe it's for himself - and has to come to grips with the decisions that he's made, the people that he's hurt and the crime he has committed. At the end of this journey, will he have the courage and strength to overcome the fear that drove him in the past?I suspect the people who gave the movie poor grades were expecting something else entirely, a suspense thriller, and that's why they were disappointed. While there is some suspense here, it is first and foremost a soul-searching, heart-wrenching drama. And I for one feel richer for having seen it. Much like the jazz music that makes the beautiful soundtrack, there is not one note in it that's out of tune.