Mrs. Harris Movie
Storyline
TAGLINES PLOT SUMMARY
Fact-based story about Jean Harris (Annette Bening), a woman who was accused of murdering famed Scarsdale Diet Dr. Herman (Hi) Tarnower (Ben Kingsley) after being in a relationship with him for 14 years. Depicted as a womanizer, Dr. Tarnower had earlier asked Mrs. Harris, a divorced school teacher, to marry him. But when faced with upcoming nuptials, he backed out. The story depicts Mrs. Harris as a distraught and obsessive woman who may have been suffering from some mental illness and based on a note sent to the doctor, may have been suicidal at the time of the murder. She contended that Dr. Tarnower was shot while the two wrestled with a gun she was going to use to kill herself. Contains profanity and sexual situations, including implied masturbation.
| Annette Bening | Jean Harris |
| Ben Kingsley | Herman Tarnower |
| Cloris Leachman | Pearl 'Billie' Schwartz - Tarnower's Sister |
| Lawrence O'Donnell | Judge Leggett |
| Frank Whaley | George Bolen |
| Bill Smitrovich | Joel Arnou |
| Frances Fisher | Marge Richey Jacobson |
| Michael Gross | Leslie Jacobson |
| Ronald Guttman | Henri |
| John Patrick Amedori | Young David Harris |
| Brad McCoy | Young Jimmy Harris |
| John Rubinstein | Tarnower's Best Friend |
| Brett Butler | Tarnower Ex #1 |
| Lee Garlington | Tarnower's Ex #2 |
| Ellen Burstyn | Former Tarnower Steady |
| Phyllis Nagy |
5.90 out of 10 (723 votes)
Visitor Reviews
Femme Fatale
posted on 30 May 2009Saw this during HBO's free weekend preview. All I can say is that with obnoxious twits like Bill Maher, Bryant Gumbel and Robert Wuhl, HBO needs all the suckers - uh, sorry - subscribers they can get!I don't know how much of "Mrs. Harris" is true, but I couldn't muster anything remotely resembling pity for the woman. If it isn't true, she should go after Phyllis Nagy for this clunker, because she and the Good Doctor here are utterly despicable creatures. Dissing Hy's ("My first Jew!") wandering eye in front of Momma? Oy!Knowing what a truly narcissistic jerk Warren Beatty is (as those who saw his speech at the Oscars a few years back can attest), I understand Annette Bening wanting to do something - anything - to get out of the house! Once, she was on her way to a brilliant career, but, alas, seems to have settled for playing shrill harpies.
A Tawdry Story and an Amateurish Film!
posted on 18 May 2009This film was atypical of the many high-caliber films produced by HBO. "Mrs. Harris" played like a generic network made-for-television biopic. The normally excellent Ben Kingsley and Annette Bening were both mediocre, and the main problem was with the teleplay. The structure of the film was odd in the use of flashbacks interlarded with the courtroom scenes. The actual relationship of Jean Harris and Herman Tarnower was downplayed, as the film progressed through vignettes that were simply variations on a single stormy and turbulent argument. The result was a one-note film with one-note performances. Tarnower was portrayed as a boorish womanizer, Harris as a pill-popping neurotic. There were no levels and no depth to the characters. Because the film-maker refused to take a stand on the actual sequence of events during the shooting, multiple versions of the crucial death scene were staged, and the viewer was left with no greater understanding of the events at the end of the film than at the beginning. This was amateurish film-making with no substantial research apparent and no integrity in attempting to come to terms with this enormously publicized and scrutinized murder. Astonishingly, the film even attempted to integrate comedy with short cameos of actors playing friends and relatives and directly addressing the camera. The scenes did not work, and they tended to trivialize a serious subject. In the tragic killing of Dr. Herman Tarnower by Jean Harris, there might have been the potential for a film to shed light on why Mrs. Harris pulled the trigger inflicting fatal gunshot wounds on the doctor. Unfortunately, this shallow film lacks intelligence in the scripting and fails even to deliver the kind of compelling drama that one may find in purely fictionalized films about a crime of passion, such as "Play Misty For Me" or "Fatal Attraction."
Riveting Performances by A Cast of Veteran Actors
posted on 22 Apr 2009I always wanted to know the details of the Jean Harris murder story. However, because I kept to scholarly reading, I didn't want to take the time or money to buy the books & magazines about her circumstances.Now that I've seen the show, I have a greater understanding of the background history & consequential events that led to Harris's trial & conviction. My knowledge grew because I witnessed riveting performances by a host of veteran actors: ones that I have grown to trust NOT to be involved in shameless mockeries of the truth, like the "Path to 9/11" is. I'm more curious to go back & read the books, newspapers & magazines about "Mrs. Harris."
Intelligent film - funny and quirky
posted on 14 Jan 2009I don't get how some people are slamming this film as amateur and just plain bad! I saw it at the Toronto Film Festival and it was one of the better films I saw. Annette and Ben were BOTH wonderful. Ben portrayed narcissistic very well and Annette portrayed an elegant sophistication coupled with utter desperation that was fantastic.The style of the film was at times pleasantly campy and took on a docu-drama feel with the "interviews" with friends and family. Cloris Leachman was hysterical.If you go into this film expecting a very historical, totally dramatic telling of the story, you are starting off on the wrong foot.The film starts with portraying Jean Harris's account of the night in question and finishes with the prosecution's account of what occurred that night. Which is true - who knows? Watch this film with an open mind. It's a trip.Suzanne
decent but nothing special
posted on 04 Jan 2009An extraordinarily talented cast gathered for director Phylis Nagy's made for TV crime and punishment opus. The results aren't astounding (like, for example, "Reversal of Fortune"), but it's certainly interesting as a character study.The story begins abruptly; rather than introduce the characters and setting, we are thrust into the primary "crime scene". Jean Harris (Annette Bening) confronts Dr. Herman Tarnower in his home and he urges her to sleep it off. Telling him that she drove 4 hours just to spend a few minutes with him, she produces a revolver and attempts to kill herself. In the process of attempting to stop her, the doctor is severely injured by 3 gunshot wounds. Once the "crime" is out of the way, the film goes back in time to fill us in on the background events that led to these events.My feelings about the film are mixed. The performances are solid, and Kingsley is worth watching in just about anything. He's got a very interesting character here – a total narcissist whose main virtue seems to be the fact that he's so open and honest about it. His crowded room of hunting trophies symbolizes rather blatantly his attitudes about life in general, and women in particular.He's not a very sympathetic character, but no matter how hard the film seems to try I just can't find Jean to be in the "right" here. First of all, I find the depiction of the crime which is shown later in the film based on the prosecution's evidence to be far more likely than the first version we're shown. Even allowing some room for the film to be ambiguous about its goals and giving them credit for showing the prosecution version, I think a number of factors tilt this film strongly in Jean's favor. Basically the film shows Jean as a victim of the doctor, particularly in that it asks us to accept that her depression and violent outburst are the result of her addiction to medication that Dr. Tarnower prescribed for her, and repeatedly reminds us that she took anything and everything he gave her based on faith. The film seems to ask us to hold the doctor responsible for her drug habit, which I find just as unpalatable as her story about the doctor being "accidentally" shot 3 times is untenable. Bening is a fine actress but she can't create pathos where none really belongs. The film is too heavy-handed in asking us to see things from her perspective, even going so far as to basically lampoon the doctor's living relatives and friends who doubt Jean's story and blame her for his death by directing these actors (including Cloris Leachman) in a ridiculous over-the-top manner.This film will hold your attention to the end of its running time, after which point you may feel as I did that you actually wasted your time. That's not to say it's a horrible film, it's just that the story is finally not convincing on a human level because Bening's character is too improbable to generate anything beyond curiosity.
fascinating look at the decline of a relationship
posted on 11 Nov 2008looking over some of the other comments here, i was confused. how could such a sophisticated treatment of a tabloid nightmare attract such vitriol? i just did not understand the response. so i started looking at some of the other movies people who've commented on this one like and after the third time i saw DOMINO get a rave in a user comment profile i stopped reading. this is why over the years i have not been moved to put my mark on IMDb, but this just made me mad. not every movie is for everyone and people who are looking for something a little out of the ordinary end up bypassing movies like this because a person whose taste is not in sync with a movie like MRS. HARRIS trashes it on a site where everybody and anybody thinks they are critics. all opinions are valid. i'm not saying they're not. we should stick to our opinions and not present our imperfect understanding of what goes in to making a movie as the bible truth.that said, i'll throw my two cents into the ring. MRS HARRIS takes a great many chances with narrative style, tone, blurring the line between fact and fiction and asking us to reconsider the boundaries of things like brutality, masochism, and how movies usually present things like murder. it's for me as much a movie about how we are conditioned to watch movies about relationships and violence as anything else.the performances are really incredible, the best i've seen from many of these actors. for people to say the direction and writing are bad is really an injustice. it's a wonderful script, sharp, intelligent, sad and so horribly funny. that's the point, i believe, that the moves from black comedy to drama are done on purpose. it's too carefully made to be anything other than that. with performances like the ones from bening, kingsley, leachman and many others, how anybody can say the direction is bad is beyond me. also the music, the choice of songs, is first rate, the photography and the costumes are, too.is it a perfect movie? no, it's not, but it's an exciting one that pushes more than a few boundaries and for me that rates an 'excellent.' i haven't seen any perfect movies and i hope i never do because when i do i will stop watching.
"I'm Sure She Meant To Call Me A Desiccated Old Bag…Not That She Would Use The Word 'Desiccated'." --- Jean Harris (Annette Bening)
posted on 18 Sep 2008"Mrs. Harris" (2005) Directed By: Phyllis Nagy Starring: Annette Bening, Ben Kingsley, Frances Fisher, Cloris Leachman, & Ellen BurstynMPAA Rating: Not Applicable There are good movies…and there are bad movies. There are average movies and there are amazing movies. Movies come in all different states of quality. But, "Mrs. Harris" is one of the very few movies that just don't fall into any category perfectly. The performances are flawless, the movie is well-made, and the initial storyline is intriguing. On the other hand, the movie is just uninteresting, disjointed, and pretentious. The promise of the plot is ruined due to tacky flashback sequences that don't appear to be in any particular order, many of which don't lead to anything of importance. "Mrs. Harris" desires to be a hard-hitting mystery that seeks to explain a real-life event, but it simply isn't. It doesn't do nearly enough to grab its audience, making for a rather dull watch. Do not get me wrong! "Mrs. Harris" is a well-made film and Annette Bening gives a spectacular performance. It has every ingredient to make a perfect film, except for one…the most important one. That ingredient is emotion. I kept waiting to feel something for the characters—something that would make me give a darn about them, but nothing ever presented itself. In fact, it seemed as though the movie wanted to do the complete opposite of what it wanted to do. It made both of our main characters into two dull, unlikable, and rather clichéd people. We are supposed to feel for these people? I do not think so.Jean Harris (Bening) had dated the famous inventor of the Scarsdale Diet, Dr. Herman Tarnower (Kinglsey) for fourteen years before she shot him to death in his home. Harris, a divorced schoolteacher, had been swept off of her feet by Tarnower's irresistible charms…but, unfortunately, she was not the only one. Tarnower was famous for being a complete womanizer who moved from one woman to the next without so much as a heartfelt "I Love You". But, Jean thought she was different. After all, Tarnower had proposed to her with a ring worth more than $10,000. Later, Tarnower reclaimed his proposal, completely destroying Jean. Harris is, according to reports, a depressed, obsessive, and mentally-unstable woman who was suicidal and almost completely unhinged. After the death of Tarnower, Jean testified that she had only come to say goodbye and was planning on committing suicide. But, Tarnower attempted to wrestle the gun from her grasp and was accidentally shot in the process. Based on the 1980's media spectacle, "Mrs. Harris" tells this intriguing story of murder, obsession, and infidelity…though it is not nearly as interesting as it should have been.The performances in "Mrs. Harris" are easily the highlight. Annette Bening gave everything she had and gave a phenomenal performance. I found her to be completely convincing. Unfortunately, the script did not give her part enough interest. Ben Kinglsey needed to give a darn good performance to make up for both "Bloodrayne" and "A Sound of Thunder". He did a great job…but not good enough to rectify both of those debacles. Why Ben? Why would you follow up two travesties with a mediocre film? Will you ever be in a good movie again? Cloris Leachman is always a delight. Here, she takes on a very serious role and handles herself very eloquently…though, I could not get the thought of her in "Scary Movie 4" out of my head. Frances Fisher gives an elegant, subdued performance. She did a nice job. Ellen Burstyn's role in this movie is now probably most remembered for being fourteen seconds in length and yet able to get her an Emmy nomination. Her performance, in my opinion, was good enough to warrant a nomination. She clearly believes in quality over quantity, because, in fourteen seconds, she gives a performance better than many people could give in an hour and a half.When "Mrs. Harris" was over, I just could not grasp what I had seen. Every aspect of "Mrs. Harris", individually, is almost completely perfect. But, when everything was put together, these perfect pieces formed such a dull picture. I just didn't find myself interesting in the movie at all. I could not have cared less whether or not the characters lived, died, went to jail, went free, or ate each other in a bloody rage. There was no realism in the characters. I couldn't relate to any of them. The biggest problem, however, is the way in which the movie is edited. It begins with one scenario of the death of Tarnower (the one Jean Harris says occurred), then flashes back and forth between the court case of Harris and her past life with Tarnower. However, the flashback sequences all seem so disjointed. They are, at times, showing an argument between Tarnower and Harris and, at other times, showing them in love (or comfort, in the eyes of Tarnower). I simply got sick of having to regroup every fifteen minutes of the movie to decipher what page the movie was on and how this unlikable couple was getting along. You could watch "Mrs. Harris" simply for the performances and not feel cheated. So, after much deliberation, I have decided to recommend the movie. But remember: view it for the purpose of seeing great performances in action, not a great movie.Final Thought: "Mrs. Harris" isn't a great movie, but its performances make up for many of its shortcomings.Overall Rating: 5/10 (B-)
Color My World with Blood... a Tribute to the Enigmatic Mrs. Harris
posted on 13 Aug 2008Spoilered just in case you are not familiar with the story. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Utterly fabulous film with a strong cast. Cameos done by Ellen Burnstyn and Brett Butler capture Tarnower's eclectic selection of women. Annette Bening does an amazing job of capturing the complexity of real-life woman Jean Harris, yet she does so with an seeming effortlessness that makes her performance eloquent. She IS Jean Harris -- petite, brilliant, vulnerable and dangerous. What a gifted and powerful actress! Ben Kingsley also does wonderful homage to cad/victim Dr. Tarnower. This movie is well cast, well scripted, and well done. For instance, I thought the thunderbolts edge the soft character of Jean Harris quite nicely. Dishes, diamonds and dark glasses. Also accompanied by poignant selections of music from the late sixties and seventies (for instance, Chicago's 'Color My World' as they struggle to get the doctor's stretcher down the spiral staircase as Jean sits by herself in a comatose haze -- very well done indeed. I'm not sure I totally believe her, but I sure do like her. This movie is wonderful!
That's why it received a slew of Emmy nominations, right?
posted on 04 Jun 2008This is a case of someone speaking as though they saw an entirely different movie. And, I guess, the individual above did."Mrs. Harris" is another solid effort in a long line of memorable HBO movies. But, please, don't take my word for it. Click on the link in the upper left margin of this page, where is says "Awards & Nominations." Is there an Emmy Award that this movie was NOT nominated for? Along with two SAG nominations and a slew of other nominations. I rest my case on that. (No, I don't think it was favoritism.) Two very solid performances by Annette Benning & Sir Ben Kingsley, a strong supporting cast, and a very good script. (Nice soundtrack, too.) Ignore Beavis's drivel and give this one a look.
A Walk on the Campy Side
posted on 01 Feb 2008I saw this movie upon recommendation from a friend and I have to say, I am not disappointed with it. It's campy, yes, but the campiness works because of the talented cast. The mighty Ben Kingsley as Hy Tarnower and the always terrific Annette Bening as Jean Harris are electric together. The supporting cast was great too-Cloris Leachman, Mary McDonnell, and Francis Fisher all gave top-notch performances.My only complaint with this film is all the flashback scenes of the murder. I mean, it starts out with the murder, but then we see it for what seems like five times more. It was too much. Jean Harris was portrayed as alternately a cold blooded killer and a woman scorned who shot her lover accidentally because she was doped up on a pills. The truth must lie somewhere in the middle.I liked the way the characters gave testimonials (Brett Butler was hilarious), and the script was very well done. The dialogue was at times a bit silly, but not overly insulting. Overall, I would give Mrs. Harris an 8 out 10.
That Voodoo That You Do So Well
posted on 29 Nov 2007Such is the thing which tangles out emotions and makes nervous wrecks out of our erstwhile model citizen facade. Jean Harris, a competent woman of society, was faced with that insurmountable challenge: the slippery Casanova she was attached to.The events were the talk of the town back when they occurred in 1980. Jean Harris was on trial for the murder of Dr. Herman Tarnower, a crime she denied having any involvement with but one which put her behind bars for 13 years. While there is no doubt that she did kill Dr. Tarnower, MRS. HARRIS focuses on the events that brought these two disparate people together.Jean Harris' world is one of bright tones, colors, and superficial happiness. She at times seems to be quite ahead of her own times and is as sharp as a tack. But all this was a clever facade which hid a neediness that only required that particular person to bring to light. Tarnower, a man who makes no effort to hide his smooth operator character, comes into her life and takes root there but makes. You would think he'd at least have some decorum in hiding his affairs but he throws them right at Harris -- for almost 14 years -- who is determined to stand by him no matter how much it hurt her moral integrity and caused her eventual meltdown.This situation is crucial for many women who mirror their happiness in the man whom they are involved with: neither of them see anything else out there, hence the point of director Phyllis Nagy in having these lovely, glowing tones. Harris exists and so does the world around her. All is pitch-perfect to a giddy point, it's like viewing a version of THE STEPFORD WIVES. Once Tarnower pushes her one too many times -- like a cat teasing an otherwise deceptive mouse -- the whole image becomes a sick grey and Harris ages years before our eyes, looking dead, like a bag lady on crack. Bening is remarkable as usual in shaving off her glamor to portray both sides of the moon, often in the same scene. She makes Jean Harris' fears and wrangled emotions come alive and her moments with Kingsley are the best in the film. As a matter of fact, they are the film. Kingsley is the puppet master playing her with hints of sadism. His reaction to a Happy New Year's party in which she tells him, "Instead of focusing on hurting other women, why don't you focus on hurting just me?" is priceless. All I could say was, "No wonder she did him in. I'd have done him myself." MRS HARRIS, despite what other critics say, does not move too fast. I felt its pace was easy as a matter of fact. It wouldn't have hurt if the cinematography would have gone darker as Harris and Tarnower's verbal tangles went for the worse, but it's a minor complaint. Being an HBO-produced drama it allows itself to be viewed and enjoyed. Watch Ellen Burstyn in a teeny-tiny cameo, though. She played Jean Harris herself twenty-five years ago herself in another made-for-TV movie called THE PEOPLE VS. JEAN HARRIS. Also noteworthy is Cloris Leachman playing a she-dog of a sister to Kingsley and hating Bening all the way through.
A one-sided version of events.
posted on 14 Sep 2007This one-sided retelling of the sensational murder trial was a total waste of talent. It is galling to see Sir Ben Kingsley wasting his time in this "Woman as victim" soap opera. Dr. Tarnower was portrayed as a cruel, sadistic womanizer wiping his feet on the poor schoolmistress. Jean Harris was portrayed as a tragic victim driven to desperation by her lover's cruelty. At least they did mention that she had walked out on her husband before meeting Dr. Tarnower.The film ignored the fact that Dr. Tarnower was a confirmed bachelor and did not want children, and had told Jean Harris right at the beginning. He apparently was quite happy to wine, dine, and take his lady friends to social occasions and on trips to exotic locations as long as they did not expect him to marry them. Unfortunately, Jean wanted the goodies AND marriage. Had they married, she would probably have been throughly miserable.As the diet book became a best seller and he became a celebrity doctor, Jean may have felt she was being left behind, especially as she was being passed over for promotion at the school. The similarity to the murder of successful playwright Joe Orton by his companion of many years, Kenneth Halliwell struck me. Orton was murdered in a fit of jealousy by Halliwell who's career was not taking off, while Orton was the celebrated darling of swinging London.The film briefly skipped over a 14 year relationship and a lengthy trial. I just wish that we could have seen more of Dr. Tarnower's side of the story, and a little of Jean Harris's sojourn in prison.
They don't get much worse than this
posted on 10 Jun 2007Surreal and awful. Disjointed and self-important. If you don't already know the story, forget learning anything from this movie. If you do, then you can't believe the license they take with the material. If you like good movies and interesting scripts, than this is not the movie for you. Dialog flatter than a pancake. You can't believe such talented actors can be so bad. And Ben Kingsley's pseudo-New York/Brooklyn/Jewish/English accent is so bad that Arnold Schwarzenegger himself would be wondering why he wasn't cast in the role. And, oh yes, the BS docu-stlye filming is all over the place. A true work of crap....
Disappointing Film with a Fine Cast
posted on 30 Dec 2006MRS. HARRIS is an HBO dud movie, and that is primarily because of the content of the story, the writing, the direction, and the waste of some fine actors' time. Based on a book by Shana Alexander adapted for the screen and directed by Phyllis Nagy, the story relates in fractured pieces between a murder scene, a trial and flashbacks the pathetic story of the death of Dr. Herman Tarnower (a wasted Ben Kingsley) the Scarsdale Diet author/doctor/womanizer at the hands of Mrs. Jean Harris (Annette Bening) a upwardly climbing school marm who becomes Tarnower's live in lover and addicted to his prescribed drugs. Her life is plagued by Tarnower's inability to keep his apparent elephantine genitals (this is made clear in an extended ridiculously inane segment in a locker room!) in his pants and eventually her own shaky self perception leads her to a suicide attempt that results in Tarnower's murder. The story is based on fact so there is no giving away an ending.The only reason to watch this bit of tripe is Annette Bening who is such a gifted actress that she can make a silk purse out of a sow's ear - and this screenplay is definitely the latter. A surprising squandering of money is obvious in the casting of bit parts to fine actors such as Cloris Leachman, Brett Butler, Ellen Burstyn, Mary McDonnell, Phillip Baker Hall, Chloë Sevigny, etc. Many have only one line! Otherwise this is a one of those films that relies on media blitz spectacle posing as a worthy story to create a movie. A must miss - except for Bening. Grady Harp, February 06
Good Actors Wasted
posted on 20 Dec 2006For anyone who remembers the shooting of the Scarsdale Diet Doctor at the hands of the school mistress from Madeira, the fancy girl's school in Potomac, MD, this film is a soap opera scandal which should have been allowed to rest in yellowing newspaper clippings (though those are probably on line now in incorruptible digits). Annette Bening is Mrs. Harris, the abandoned and lovelorn teacher. Bening is a fine actress and while she succeeds in bringing her character to life, all that is accomplished is to demonstrate once again that Mrs. Harris was pathetic. Kingsley has much less to work with and all he is able to demonstrate is that Herman (Hy) Tarnower was an unmitigated son-of-a-bitch, which we already knew. Why did Ellen Burstyn and Cloris Leachman allow themselves to be roped into this? One assumes for the money, certainly not the art. Could this have been a better picture? Given the facts of the case, which are reproduced more or less as they were presented at the time, I would guess not. Neither of the principals has much of a back story to be unpacked and, while the details of the murder made headlines for days at the time, at the end of the day it's merely a sad, sordid, essentially uninvolving tale.
Choppy
posted on 19 Oct 2006Despite two strong lead actors in Ben Kingsley and Annette Benning, Mrs Harris flops. The tone of the script is the problem. It should combust at the end after a slow, almost unbearable build-up of tension. The audience should FEEL Jean Harris' rage, frustration, and hopelessness. Instead, we're supposed to laugh. The script is written as farce, not drama. Good drama can contain cynical humour and pathos, as long as it's not dominated by either one. Then it's not drama. I'm sure Hollywood bigwigs said to the poor scriptwriter, "no one wants to watch a tragic love-story between two fiftyish neurotics, even if the broad murders the guy in the end." Of course, the producers would be too young to remember the case itself. So, they took the easy route and made the autumn romance a farce. They sporadically threw in some booty, and the murder as teasers to make the movie bearable to watch.Yup, they missed the boat with this one.
The diet doctor
posted on 14 Aug 2006The incident in which this HBO film is based upon, was fodder for the sensational press during the time it was front page news. Phyllis Nagy adapted the material for the screen, as well as directed. Ms. Nagy makes a point for not taking sides in the way this tale is presented. Jean Harris plays the most important part since, after all, she was the only one that lived to tell her story. How much of it is fiction, and how much it is true?, let the viewer arrive at his own conclusion.The basic problem with this ambitious production is the casting of the two principal characters. Annette Benning, obviously acting on the text Ms. Nagy wrote, comes across as a silly woman. We don't get to see a dignified Jean Harris, or at least the woman one saw in pictures, and on the television news. Ms. Benning is a good actress, as she has proved herself in other films. Jean Harris, alas, is not one of the best roles she has played.Ben Kingsley, the wonderful English actor, plays Dr. Herman Tarnower, the victim of Jean Harris' jealousy. Mr. Kingsley's take on this doctor is not convincing. His Dr. Tarnower comes across as a man who had a roving eye for attractive women of a certain class, which is what made him fall for Mrs. Harris, to begin with. According to Ms. Nagy, this doctor had an indecisive nature paying more attention to his mother when she bluntly questions why is he marrying the poor Mrs. Harris.The opening credits show us how other women, at least in film noir, have dealt with men their own way. What Ms. Nagy's screen play does is to take the viewpoint that maybe Mrs. Harris didn't intend to kill Dr. Tarnower, at all, when the facts of the case tell us she fired a few shots during that fatal encounter.
More then OK, less then great
posted on 13 Jul 2006SPOILERS THROUGH:Mrs. Harris, like many movies, has both good and bad aspects to it. I went into this thinking it would either be an extraordinary film or absolutely awful. I was wrong on both guesses. The movie is above average but not great although there are certainly some great elements to it.First the positives. Annette Benning and Ben Kingsley are cast in the main roles. Now just that fact alone will probably encourage some people, who ordinarily wouldn't be interested in this type of film, to give it a viewing. And Benning and Kingsley do not disappoint. Both of them deliver very powerful performances, particularly Benning who in my opinion is one of the top actresses working today. No matter what type of character she plays she always makes you forget she is Annette Benning. And this performance is no different.The combination of Kingsley and Benning together on screen elevates this movie considerably. Both of them are able to play their roles with conviction and believability. The movie and it's two leads, were excellent at showing the relationship from the happy beginning, the problems that came up, and the downward spiral. They were also excellent in really painting a portrait of both these people and tapping into the emotion element of who they were and the red flags that started to come up that were able to show the viewer they were on a collision coarse. Although the movie sometimes seemed made for television in a lifetime channel kind of way, those moments did not last, because Benning and Kingsley were around to prevent that and they were throughly convincing as a screen couple. They never resorted to theatrics and played their roles with a naturalness that one very rarely sees in this type of film.Something else that must be mentioned is the great use of music in the movie. Now a lot of movies have music in them but it's the rare film that can use music in an effective way. That element was done very well here.The "Color my world" scene in particular stood out to me. It's just not often that a movie is that good in knowing what musical selections work that well, and this movie did. Kudos to whoever selected the music.So with the great performances, the great music choices and the photography which was good as well, that's enough to make the movie watchable. Unfortunately it doesn't ever cross the line to being a "Great" movie and that's largely because of the editing, sequences of scenes, and flow of the picture in general.I really thought the editing was rather choppy and think the story would have been told much better without all the flashbacks. The whole thing with the supporting cast talking to the camera has been done in other movies, sometimes done well, most notably in the excellent film "To Die For" where it really worked. But it doesn't work here. We don't see nearly enough of any of the supporting cast and most frustrating was not being able to see either of the two leads interact with almost anybody except each other.I am sure I'm not the only one who would have liked to see more of their relationships with other people and we didn't really get to see that. The editing was off and there was WAY to much retelling of the night of the murder. That DID seem exploitative and after awhile it was like: how many times do they need to show us bullets raining out in the rain soaked night? That was how the movie started(to much to fast if you ask me) and those scenes took away from the film and there was to much time devoted to the same scene.The scene of Ben Kingsley in the locker room was honestly rather strange but I suppose I liked it. It sure was different. Mrs. Harris isn't what I would call a great movie but at times it did have it's moments and probably would have had even more if certain things were fixed a bit. I would call it an above average film that falls short of being great but is definitely worth a look. My vote's 8 of 10.
Bening's Performance as Harris ...
posted on 11 Jul 2006... Is among her best work: it is nuanced, studied and whip-smart. She has a flair for bone-dry humor that is on full display here.HBO continues to show that it is the go-to network for actresses over a certain age, providing them with some bravura roles. Jean Harris could have easily descended into caricature and vapidness, but Bening finds her heart.When I first saw that the film was being made (it was first made for television with Ellen Burstyn as Jean in 1980), I thought "why again?" but the filmmakers have proved their case: the film works on every level, but especially the performances. They are compulsively watchable.Her performance is expertly modulated and as the film unwinds she becomes very human: her crime is not such a surprise and her motives seem justified.The actresses interplay with Kingsley is a wonder to behold. If you are a fan of singular acting, this will be worth your while.Mary McDonnell, Philip Baker Hall, Brett Butler, Frances Fisher, Cloris Leachman and the original Harris, Burstyn, all show up for great cameos. This is not a film you will ever see in a theater, HBO has cornered the market on interesting, vital character studies.
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I think it was good....
posted on 22 Aug 2009To a viewer unfamiliar with the past works of Annette Bening and (Sir) Ben Kingsley, one might think they were terrible actors based solely on Mrs. Harris.The performances by Bening and Kingsley seemed over emphasized and over acted. Knowing their abilities, I can only assume that their performance style was intentional and is integral to the story. With that in mind, I have a very different appreciation for Mrs. Harris than I would have as a 'first-time' viewer of Bening and Kingsley.The film took on an almost bad 'made-for-TV' docu-drama feel - again, I hope and expect this was an intentional move by newcomer screenwriter/director Phyllis Nagy.This isn't another Being Julia, American Beauty, or Sexy Beast, but if you're a Bening and/or Kingsley fan, check it out. I suspect you'll draw the same conclusions that I did regarding the performance style and it's meaning.