When we’re young, possibilities seem endless, chances infinite. As we get older, as we journey further and further down the paths chosen, as we get further and further away from the paths not chosen, we realize how every choice is actually many choices—and how way leads on to way and we’ll never be back to these particular two road diverging in a yellow wood ever again. Every path we choose is also a choice against other paths, making our choices far more limited than we can even imagine, and as we continue on we see, tragically, how fewer and fewer choices we have left.
Most romance movies are, unfortunately, about young, pretty people, untouched by disappointment, unlined by time, who will live forever and who have an eternity of chances to squander, but occasionally a film comes along for grownups—one in which the potential lovers are a bit bent over and world-weary, aware, perhaps acutely, that soon one of the chances encountered will be their last. This truth, this humbling awareness inspires sobriety and clarity, thoughtfulness and carefulness. These lovers aren’t reckless with their chances for they know their chances aren’t infinite. Perhaps this knowledge leads to a slight desperation, but more than anything it imbues them with a hesitancy I find irresistibly charming and gives them a gratitude for chances their younger selves took for granted.
Life has a way of lowering expectations (if our childhoods are good enough to make them high to begin with) and shattering illusions. What remains is far more real, far more interesting. It’s part of why, even as time goes by, Rick and Ilsa are quintessential, timeless lovers.
Though no Rick and Ilsa, Harvey Shine and Kate Walker are characters cut from the same well-worn cloth—elevated by the performances of well-worn actors Dustin Hoffman and Emma Thompson.
Set in London, “Last Chance Harvey” is a romantic dramedy starring Dustin Hoffman as Harvey Shine, a divorced and haggard jingle-writer quickly aging out of his career and workaholic ways. With a warning from his boss (Richard Schiff) not to bother rushing back, Harvey goes to London, begrudgingly, for his daughter's wedding, desperately fielding work calls the whole time he’s there.
When Harvey greets his estranged daughter, Susie (Liane Balaban), it becomes clear just how far away he’s grown from his family. The film never spells out in exactly what ways Harvey was a bad father, but that Susie asks her stepfather (James Brolin) to give her away says it all. As Harvey leaves his heartbreak at the ceremony for an emergency work call, he misses his flight and gets fired.
Nursing a whiskey at the airport bar, Harvey bumps into Kate (Emma Thompson), an airport employee escaping her own bad day with a glass of wine and a book. Suddenly taken by Kate's British charm, a tipsy Harvey bombards her with tales of his trouble. This unlikely trading of sob stories leads to lunch, a walk around London, and a day of unexpected romance.
Thompson and Hoffman bring far more to these characters than younger actors could (remind me again why our culture in general and Hollywood in particular is so obsessed with teens?) giving Kate and Harvey wit and charm just above their disappointments and essential sadness.
“Last Chance Harvey” is slow-paced (like its protagonists) and obvious in ways that border on cliché (and perhaps even crosses those borders sometimes), but it’s also adultly romantic and sweet and sad.
Over a decade ago, while in my twenties, a woman told me I had the priorities of a much older man. It was one of the best compliments I received at the time, the only one I even remember, and sitting alone in the theater watching Harvey on the enormous screen, I thought the greatest thing I could take from his experience is not to wait until late in life to figure out what really matters. For even as a still sort of youngish man it’s possible that some seemingly random chance to be and act loving just might be my last.
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