Harvey (Dustin Hoffman) is a rumpled, awkward man who’s just lost his job in America and is now arriving at his daughter (Liane Balaban’s) wedding in London. Out of place, alone in a hotel room, practically uninvited and seemingly left out of the family traditions the night of the rehearsal dinner, we learn very quickly that Harvey is an outsider to this estranged family. Not to mention his ex-wife (Kathy Baker) and her fabulous husband/step-father to the kids (James Brolin) have a perfect life full of sappy Kodak moments. When things take a turn at the ceremony, and Harvey heads for the airport to bail out, he happens upon a lovely woman, Kate Walker (Emma Thompson) at the airport, minding her business and reading her novel. This is Harvey’s last chance at getting it right, but it’s also a lot of firsts. And if he can pull them off, he might walk out with a rekindled friendship with his child, not to mention a romantic love interest and even keep his job back home. The charm of the two characters one-ups the usual sappy British romances, and certainly tops their last joint effort “Stranger Than Fiction.” One wouldn’t think of them as a stunning, sexy, couple together, yet there’s something about their awkwardness that makes us believe that there’s somebody out there for everyone. Another unusually nice angle of this storyline is while some characters are incapable of forming relationships with those around them in a film, these two seem desperate to want to, but can’t seem to figure out how, thus making a nice sympathy factor for the audience. Yet despite all its quirkiness, “Last Chance Harvey” is a first rate hit-of-a-love-story for this new year. And certainly a very current subject for today’s world, given all the divorces and step-families. Everybody can relate to this one. Four tiaras.
