Review of Handsome Harry (2009) by Richard A — 10 Sep 2017

This is the only film I have ever seen which (thanks to Jamey Sheridan's performance as the title character) portrays a man straddling the middle of the Kinsey scale on sexuality whose fear of being gay leads not only to expectable denial, but who can destroy the object his same sex affection and build a false memory that he even had a role in it.

It is a magnificent acting job of focusing so much on the man you want to be - a man you can't really be - and not noticing that although you have the trappings of a "normal" life, you have never really connected with those who are ostensibly "close" to you.

Harry straddles distance/intimacy with his son, with a waitress at his local diner, and the inference that he is divorced would indicate an intimacy failure there, too, although it produced a child. Sheridan takes all these contradictions in Harry's character and makes them credible in a single person.

It is a portrayal on a par with the complex masculine characters created by Sam Elliot in "Lifeguard" and Warren Beatty in "Shampoo". Harry is flawed, real, exasperating, admirable and detestable all at once.

This movie deserves a theatrical re-release and for more people to see it. I saw it on YouTube and it is now one of my favorite movies.