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Year One
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
With a Friend Like Harry
Generally favorable reviews
Based on 28 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 8 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Suspense/Thriller
Written by:
Gilles Marchand
Dominik Moll
Directed by: Dominik Moll
Release Date:
Theatrical: April 20, 2001
DVD: October 23, 2001
Running Time: 117 minutes, Color
Origin: France
Summary
RATING: R for language, some violence and a scene of nudity
Starring Laurent Lucas, Sergi López, Mathilde Seigner, and Sophie Guillemin
A spiraling descent into fear and the perils of relationships in the tradition of Hitchcock. (Miramax Films)
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Portland Oregonian Kim Morgan
A witty, frightening, well-acted picture with near-perfect cinematic timing.
San Francisco Chronicle Bob Graham
A steady undertow of sex gives this French thriller a scintillating surface.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum
A suspenseful and delightfully creepy French drama.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas
Moll, in only his second feature, evokes a sense of foreboding, playing the routine against the unnerving, the humorous against the sinister, with a wit and deftness that might have impressed Hitchcock.
Read Full Review >The New York Times Dave Kehr
A strange and funny film, smart, complex and difficult to shake.
Read Full Review >New York Daily News Jami Bernard
Moll clearly has looked to Hitchcock and Clouzot for inspiration. There are sexual undercurrents between characters, psychological quirks and a murky veneer like the surface of the pool in "Diabolique."
Read Full Review >Chicago Tribune Mark Caro
The actors and writing lend unexpected dimension to all of the characters, and Lopez's Harry is an indelible antagonist, one who manages to be genuinely big-hearted and evil.
Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker
From Harry's perspective, it's a grotesque life, a dead end for his new protege Michel, but Moll also shows the sensitivity beneath the sniping and that's where With a Friend Like Harry ... really scores
Read Full Review >Mr. Showbiz Cody Clark
Rises instantly above its genre merely by taking the time to develop its characters and scenario.
Read Full Review >Film.com Peter Brunette
An insistent, insinuating film -- both in terms of its plot and characters, and in its impact on the viewer -- Harry's effects are small-scale but so perfectly pitched that they never seem small.
Read Full Review >LA Weekly F. X. Feeney
Moll ratchets his suspense with impressive mastery, wringing a maximum of excruciating terror out of the humblest everyday materials.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Michael O'Sullivan
Very, very funny, in that morbid sort of way that makes you laugh even as you shudder with horror.
Read Full Review >New Times (L.A.) Bill Gallo
This is a highly original film blessed with fetching complications all its own and some hair-raising turns of plot.
Read Full Review >Time Richard Schickel
This criminal comedy remains deliciously deadpan about the wages of psychopathy.
Austin Chronicle Kimberley Jones
Appropriately belongs to Lopez. His mannequin glaze and never-wavering smile provide more creepy-crawlies than a thousand quivering violins or perfectly timed thunderclaps.
Read Full Review >New York Post Jonathan Foreman
Often darkly funny and very well acted, it's a pleasingly subtle, Hitchockian thriller with dark comic overtones.
Philadelphia Inquirer Desmond Ryan
The film is a small and polished gem that proves that with a friend like Harry, nobody needs an enemy.
USA Today Andy Seiler
Director Dominik Moll knows how to make a gruesome-free thriller and even manages some dark laughs as he turns the screws.
Read Full Review >Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
We realize that the most frightening outcome of the movie would be if it contained no surprises, no revelations, no quirky twist at the end.
Read Full Review >Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt
A startling, suspenseful ride few will forget in a hurry.
Read Full Review >Boston Globe Jay Carr
A sleek little poison pill of a movie.
Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern
I did enjoy the movie's mercurial moods -- anxiety, terror, whimsical horror -- and I welcomed its confirmation that the work of the devil includes SUVs.
Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow
Critically lacks Highsmith's sixth sense for drawing you into the heart and soul of sociopaths, then jolting you with the realization that things are much worse even than they seem.
Read Full Review >New York Magazine Peter Rainer
As murderous amusements go, the film is mildly diverting, but it's like a faint facsimile of a Claude Chabrol film.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 7.0 (out of 10) based on 8 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Jean P. gave it an8:
Fanatic perfectionist, control freak; oh for sure this time bomb had several "blow moments"; flavorful taste of hitchcock, king, steiger, argento with a sprinkle of columbo-monk; his every moment was an unyielding descent into complte madness.
Chad S. gave it an 8:
Spotting the nods to Alfred Hitchcock's "Strangers on a Train" is the main reason to see "Harry, He's Here to Help" (this is the superior original title) about a psycho and his unrequited love. As every movie fanatic knows, Brian DePalma uses violence more explicitly than Hitchcock. Dominick Moll, on the other hand, prefers spurts of humor over blood, in which the comedic side of Hitchcock is made more explicit. People like to joke about killing the interior decorator when he/she errs, but in "With a Friend Like Harry", it's no laughing matter. This sometimes wonderful film manages to be funny and scary. How Harry murders his victims are beautifully rendered, with hardly an iota of blood, like Hitchcock. The name change is unfortunate because the original title serves as a sort of punchline for the final scene.
Junichi S. gave it a 4:
I kept waiting for a clear explanation of Lopez's character's motivations, but nothing is ever revealed. In other words, this is no better than any other slasher film, except that everyone speaks French.
Jon C. gave it a 9:
Sergi Lopez is brilliant. Funny and frightening at the same time. Check out "An Affair of Love" also.
Karen C. gave it a 10:
If you've ever had an old college friend pop into your life and discovered how the past impinges upon the present with a disruptive yet positive influence, if your parents have died and you've experienced a mix of elation at your sudden freedom and despair at your own mortality, if you wonder if drinking raw eggs after orgasm increases virility, if you're a blocked writer or an over-exhausted parent, or if you've ever been a down-to earth, practical couple renovating a home with independently wealthy, decadent, sensual friends who can oversleep and indulge in hedonistic freedoms, if you love a sinister Hitchcokian thriller with black comedy at once realistic and absurd, you'll adore this exquisite gem of a film.
Max C. gave it a 7:
Thrilling movie without being too "horror." I thought the actors were perfectly cast and the writer and director subtly took normal lives and twisted them upside down. I love that there is not "full disclosure" like in so many American films. There is plenty left unsaid and that's fine.
Alan H. gave it a 3:
Less than meets the eye. Second rate synthetic Hitchcock.
