Plot summary (with possible spoilers): This film is about two very lonely people who fortuitously meet in London and embark on what could be a rewarding relationship for both. The man named in the title is Harvey Shine (played by Dustin Hoffman), a commercial jingle composer who is being pushed out of work by the younger generation.
Right in the middle of negotiations for a major account, Harvey has to fly to London for his daughter Susan’s (Liane Balaban) wedding, where he is constantly reminded of his outcast status. He’s staying in a hotel while the others are staying in a rented house provided by ex-wife Jean (Kathy Baker), he doesn’t know about any of the stories told at the rehearsal dinner, and Susan has asked stepfather Brian (James Brolin) to give her away.
Meanwhile, we also see snippets of Kate Walker’s (Emma Thompson) life. She works at the airport where she must somehow get harried travelers to answer her questionnaires, and she also cares for her mother Maggie (Eileen Atkins), who suffers from boredom and has a bit of a Rear Window situation going on with her new Polish neighbor. Kate has trouble meeting men, and the ones she does meet are deficient in various ways.
Harvey, depressed about how little he fits into his daughter’s life, decides to skip the reception and return to New York right after the ceremony. Due to traffic, he misses his flight — which ends up not mattering since he gets a phone call saying he’s fired. He goes to an airport bar to drown his sorrows, where he runs into Kate. The two start talking, eat lunch together, and wind up spending the whole day and night in each other’s company. Despite knowing how crazy it sounds, the two decide to give their budding relationship a chance.
My Reaction: Emma Thompson has been one of my favorite actresses ever since her excellent performance in 2003′s Love Actually, so I really wanted to like this film. And while both Thompson and Hoffman were terrific in their roles, bringing both humanity and a quiet dignity to their downtrodden characters, the circumstances of the plot were far too contrived and reminiscent of other works.
What do I mean? Well, the part about spending time together before Harvey had to catch his plane reminded me of Before Sunrise. The part where something happened to Harvey and he couldn’t make it to the rendezvous point reminded me of An Affair to Remember. I’ve already mentioned the Rear Window callback. And the forced “banter” between Harvey and Kate — especially early on — was reminiscent of every romantic movie out there.
But the biggest problem of all with Last Chance Harvey was that I didn’t detect any chemistry between the main characters. As I said, the actors themselves were terrific in their roles, but there was simply no romantic chemistry between them. It could be because Dustin Hoffman is, seventy-freakin’-two years old, while Emma Thompson is just 50… but that’s just my guess.
Overall, Last Chance Harvey ended up being an average film. The story was highly unlikely, but the lead actors (as separate entities) did much to make the movie watchable. Even so, I give it just 2 stars out of 5.
HIMYM 5×05 — “Duel Citizenship”: This episode was decent — certainly much better than last week’s. I enjoyed both storylines for once, and thought that Marshall and Lily were finally put to good use instead of simply being distractions. I could certainly understand where Ted was coming from when lamenting about never getting any alone time with Marshall anymore. I have several married friends who are exactly the same way. They never go out except as a couple, and it’s very annoying.
Desperate Housewives 6×04 — “The God-Why-Don’t-You-Love-Me Blues”: Last night’s episode of Desperate Housewives was actually pretty good. I found myself laughing out loud in quite a few places, and didn’t even get bored enough to multitask while the ep was on. Now that’s progress! Plus, the writers even moved some of the storylines farther along, which is always a good thing.
The highly anticipated release of the Spike Jonze adaptation of Where the Wild Things Are easily topped the box office today, earning $32.5 million in its debut weekend. The film played to 
Episode 3×07 of Burn Notice was called “Shot in the Dark”, and while not great as a whole, did have some good parts. We saw Michael move forward with Strickler, and also saw a fairly interesting Odd Job of the Week. Also, Fiona’s whining about Michael’s life choices was kept to a minimum, which I appreciated. I’m really starting to like this character now, so I hope the writers don’t go and turn her into a complete shrew!
House 6×04 — “Instant Karma”: How long is it going to be until House gets his license back? Because I just can’t stand the team dynamic as it is now with Foreman in charge. Everyone, including Foreman, knows the setup is a farce, so why persist with it week after week? It’s so frustrating to watch this. Also, Hugh Laurie needs to ditch the full beard and grow his hair out ASAP. He looked good with stubble and regular hair. The style he’s sporting now is not attractive at all.
Castle 2×04 — “Fool Me Once…”: Can I just tell you how much I love this show? Each episode is so fun, and I truly enjoy watching the interaction between Castle and Beckett. They are my favorite TV couple by far (I know they’re not officially a couple, yet, but come on — we all know where this is going), and I so look forward to their banter every week. My favorite part of the ep was Beckett making a date night for 
Bones 5×05 — “A Night at the Bones Museum”: This episode was actually ok. I don’t really like Daisy and only half paid attention to whatever was happening between her and Sweets, but the other stuff was good. I thought it was hilarious how Bones was acting all excited about the possibility of discovering something significant about the mummy and perhaps getting her picture on the cover of that anthropology journal or whatever. It’s cool that she actually loves her field of study so much that she can still generate that much excitement over it. 
Criminal Minds 5×04 — “Hopeless”: I could have done without the totally vicious killings this week. Yikes, was it necessary to show that much violence in the opening scene?? I was with Morgan on this one: what made those guys want to kill people in that fashion? The title of the ep was “Hopeless”, but as Morgan pointed out, the perps all had jobs and were making their way despite the bad economy. What, exactly, were they feeling hopeless about??
My DVD collection consists mostly of boxed sets from my favorite television shows of the past and present. I very rarely buy movies because there aren’t too many that I can stand to watch over and over again. One rare exception would definitely have to be Love Actually, the 2003 Richard Curtis romantic comedy/drama. This is one of my favorite films of all time, and I would love to own it on DVD!
Plot summary (with spoilers): Based on the Agatha Christie play of the same name, And Then There Were None is a groundbreaking (for its time) whodunit about a group of 10 strangers who were all invited to a secluded island by a man named U. N. Owen. Each invitation stated different reasons for asking the individual to come. Some thought they were getting job offers, while others thought they were simply participating in a weekend retreat.