Movie Review – Last Chance Harvey

It is hard to turn away from a film that has two actors of this caliber.  Dustin Hoffman and Emma Thompson haven’t disappointed me in the past and they’ve proven themselves again.  While this may not be a box office hit or appeal to the mainstream, it was still an endearing film.  What’s nice about this romantic comedy is that it involves two middle-age-plus characters rather than your typical twenty-somethings that prove to be predictable.  We see two people that have weathered life and show the worse for wear.  The characters, Kate and Harvey, live life with a defeated resolve and handle situations and relationships with a quirky awkwardness that can only be the result of years hard knocks.  In the end, they prove to be each others last opportunity for normalcy and happiness.  What I loved about this film was watching the intense subtlety of Emma Thompson’s and Dustin Hoffman’s acting ability.  While the script may not have been the film’s greatest strength, Thompson and Hoffman certainly masked any deficiencies in the writing. 

What was most interesting was that at one point Thompson’s character confesses that she prefers to live with disappointment because it is predictable and she doesn’t have to risk getting hurt.  By choosing to be disappointed, she knows what to expect. 

How true.

How many times have I seen people choose to live in disappointment because it involves little risk.   It’s safer. 

If we expect to be disappointed by life then we will never fully give ourselves to it.  We will walk with a reserve that always holds some part of us back which leads to disappointing results and so the cycle continues. 

We are never promised that everything will always work out the way we want and, in fact, it won’t.  But we must never let the disappointments of life keep us from embracing life.  If so, we will be robbed of so many things the Lord has for us and we will never experience His fullness.  Life is worth the risk.