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WITH A FRIEND LIKE HARRY... Send This Review to a Friend
If a well-made macabre thriller is your cup of nastiness, you should appreciate "With a Friend Like Harry…" a French film by Dominik Moll that starts with an cheerfully ominous encounter and gets incresingly suspenseful and wicked after an oddball psychopath worms his way into a family that doesn't know what it is in for in its relationship with Harry.
Sergi Lopez in the title role seems like an irrepressible do-gooder as he meets Michel (Laurent Lucas) in the rest room of a road stop as Michel, his wife Claire (Mathilde Seigner) and their three young daughters are en route to what they hope will be a pleasant vacation at their summer home. Harry recognizes Michel as a former school acquaintance, and flashing his wealth, he makes himself, as well as his sexy girlfriend Plum ( Sophie Guillemin), part of the entourage.
We soon realize that Harry has a psychopathic urge to control other people's lives. He sees the need to help Michel straighten out his. Michel has problems with his parents, and the way Harry sees it, Michel is in a rut with his wife, as well as marriage in general. He also lacks money, and Harry is convinced Michel once had a talent for writing but never realized it. Harry will fix everything.
The well-acted and directed film is reminiscent of Hitchcock, but Hitch never got as grisly as writer-director Moll eventually gets with this engrossing dose of evil. The less you know about it before you see it, the better. A Miramax Zoe release.
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