Yawn. Poorly Filmed Snooze Fest.

Amateur movie with Big budget

a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.

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?

This is one of the most unusual comedy-dramas I've seen in recent years. It seemed to have a simple and no-frills premise, and then I learned it's because the film is based on a Chinese story. Harry Maloney (Colm Meaney, always a wonderful presence) is a widowed farmer who grows cabbages. One of his sons died sometime back, and then the wife died. All that remain to him are his little cabbage farm, a dreary house and an astonishingly beautiful yet socially awkward son, Gus (Cillian Murphy). One day at the local pub, as the entire town celebrates the recent birth of a baby, Gus falls in love at first sight with a new girl in town, Eileen (Kerry Condon).All of life's blows have left Harry a hard, soured, downright crazed man, and Gus usually gets the worst of Harry's daily tantrums. Harry isn't physically abusive, but he is distant, cold, shrill and often emotionally domineering, and Gus is submissive, alienated and lonely. With his own agenda in mind, and believing it will be a cure-all for Gus, Harry arranges a marriage between Gus and Eileen. Unfortunately, Harry had to ask the cooperation of Eileen's boss, George O'Flahtery (Adrian Dunbar) a man, for reasons unknown, is Harry's sworn enemy. They are only too happy to profess their hatred for each other in words, and later, in pranks.The main plot is how Harry strives time and again to knock his enemy down. Every time something comes up, Harry sees it as an opportunity to "get" George, but always, something spoils the effect. Harry becomes crazier and more irrational every day, making life unbearable for Gus and Eileen, who, because of Harry's effect on Gus, are having their own marital struggles. It's a very interesting, an unfortunately for me, familiar character study of how one family member can drive the others into their graves with his insanity. Harry's life is so empty and meaningless, his obsession for revenge so huge, his personality so unpleasant, that it's impossible to like him...almost (Meaney is just too delightfully demented!). His effect on his son Gus is very interesting: Gus is so intimidated by his father that he can barely function. The Gus character is described by some as "dim" but I didn't see any mental deficits. I saw a kid who is trying to survive living with an extremely intolerable father, not knowing how to deal. Once Gus is married though, he begins to display surprising strength when he defends his wife against Harry's vicious tactics.I think any fan of Colm Meaney or Cillian Murphy would love this very unusual dark and charming film!

As an American, it took me a bit to get used to the language of rural Ireland in the 1920's, but this film draws you into a world that seems not at all foreign after a while. Unlike the relentlessly depressing "The Field", this is a drama of real tragedies - the small, silly tragedies that we create and that are created for us- and also, of real hope. The original Irish title of this film "How Harry Became a Tree" is so much more fitting than the US "Bitter Harvest" (what were they thinking?), though fortunately the brilliant allegory of the tree is not lost with the title change. Performances are universally outstanding and poignant, the photography beautiful, the music haunting. See this film and see how the Irish continue to astonish with their mastery of language and vision.

A story capturing my mind: although most of the audience in the cinema were laughing a lot and the two user comments I found in IMDB both claimed it was a funny movie, I found it rather sad. It is about the anger of a man who cannot handle his personal tragedies and decides to challenge the most powerful man in the village with no reason. The events eventually lead to an inevitable tragedy. The striking motif of self-destruction in this movie is similar to the one that exists in the Balkan and beautifully presented in some Kusturica movies, so despite the Irish environment, the director's (Goran Paskaljevic from Serbia) origin is clearly felt.

I went seeing this movie with a group of teaching colleagues at the annual International Film Festival of Gent. It was indeed a festive occasion and we all felt very happy and high-spirited afterwards. I won't easily forget this film and will always highly recommend it to all the people I love, not in the least the students that have been appointed to me.For indeed I believe in the introductory comment by Goran Paskaljevic, the director of this beautiful film, whose presence together with that of the wonderfully acting Colm Meany was of course also part of an utmost enjoyable cinematographic evening.Mr Paskaljevic expressed two things during the measured time of the interview. He hoped that the audience would have a real good laugh and that after leaving his film one would consider the reason(s) for having an enemy.I forgot about the audience, but the movie did certainly make me laugh. And there can only be one consideration : how unwise it is to have an enemy in one's lifetime. Harry did not become the tree of life.