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Susan Granger's review of "WITH A FRIEND LIKE HARRY"
Harry's like a subversively black comedy version of "The Man Who Came to Dinner" as interpreted by German-born, France-based director Dominik Moll via Alfred Hitchcock with nods to French film-makers Henri-George Clouzot and Claude Chabrol. Let me explain. On a hot summer day, bickering Michel (Laurent Lucas) and Claire (Mathilde Seigner) and their three cranky, squalling daughters, all under the age of five, are driving in a car with no air-conditioning when they pause at a rest stop. In the men's room, Michel, who's enmeshed in domestic chaos and strapped for cash, meets Harry (Sergi Lopez), who's now a wealthy businessman and remembers him from school. Perhaps they were classmates 20 years ago; Michel can't recall. But Harry obviously idolizes him and invites himself and his fiancee, Plum (Sophie Guillemin), to Michel's half-finished vacation home in the French countryside. Soon Claire's suspicious of their bizarre, lingering guests, who are overtly charming (de! termined to "solve every problem") and seductively generous (giving them a new SUV) but also hedonistic and overbearing. And Harry's downright creepy in his homoeroticism. By the time misguided Michel realizes what's happening, they're all in mortal danger. Charismatic Sergi Lopez treads that subtle line between charmingly pleasant and obsessively psychotic, while Laurent Lucas rings true as the stressed-out husband. While Dominik Moll evokes memories of "Strangers on a Train" and "Apartment Zero," he still can't elude the sinister cliches of the genre and fails to sufficiently delineate Michel's gullible psychological discontent. Plus, there's a weak conclusion. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, "With a Friend Like Harry" is a droll, deceptive, insidious 8. It's a wicked psychological thriller.
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