What I Rented - With a Friend Like Harry

With a Friend Like Harry is a great little slow burn thriller. Despite the fact that the story isn’t incredibly original, and follows a predictable path, it still finds unique ways to build suspense. Instead of big edge of your seat thrills and chills, it’s a movie that uses tiny gestures and awkward line deliveries in order to create an overall sense of unease.

Two men, former schoolmates, run into each other by coincidence at a rest stop bathroom. Michel, a family man going to a summer home with his wife and children, doesn’t recognize Harry, a wealthy playboy, at first. But Harry certainly remembers Michel, especially the high school poems and stories he wrote. As Harry begins to immerse himself in Michel’s life, it becomes clear that he has an ulterior motive.

Director Dominik Moll guides this film with a sure hand, and although the pace is slow, it’s never boring; rather it’s unsettling. Each of Harry’s lines, as spoken by Sergi Lopez, cuts deeper and deeper into Michel’s psyche, filling him with confidence and doubt at the same time. Harry pushes each gesture of goodwill just a little farther than most people would dare. When he praises Michel’s high school poem, it’s flattering at first, but when he begins to recite it word for word it’s creepy. Yet, Harry always has a good reason for everything, and a zest for life that Michel hasn’t experienced in ages due to family responsibilities. Michel leans toward him in the hopes that some of his raw excitement will rub off on him.

The dynamic between the two is fascinating, leading to a conclusion that actually surprised me, but not in the usual way. It’s surprising in that it manages to effectively end the story in a thrilling, albeit entirely low key manner that doesn’t betray the previously established tone.

The plot never finds a way to be as inventive as the character work, and because of that the movie doesn’t take off completely. The shocks are hardly surprising (until the end), and at times With a Friend Like Harry feels like it is adding suspense sequences to appease potentially restless audience members. It’s actually less disturbing in the scenes that are supposed to be big set pieces.

But for once, I didn’t find myself all that upset by being a few steps ahead of the movie. It’s just a joy watching the main characters subtly try to figure each other out. Sometimes it’s nice to have a thriller interested in the small moments.

*** out of 4