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With HonorsRating:
Release Date: 03 February, 2004 Retail Price: $9.98 OUR Price: $9.98 You SAVE: $0.00! Cast: Complete Cast (12 total) |
With Honors Reviews
Fraser triumphs as a student who learns the value of an education
... a life education, that is. Brendan Fraser has never been one to take on a role with any substance or complexity and this film is certainly not a divergence. I don't begrudge the guy for going for the paycheck -- and he must not begrudge himself either because it seems it's all he does: Dudley Dooright, George of the Jungle, The Looney Tunes Movie, Mummies I & II, Monkeybone, Bedazzled, The Scout, Airheads, Encino Man, etc.
In this earnest to the point of humiliation film, a homeless man throws Fraser's thesis into a furnance. (And as an earlier reviewer pointed out) Let's forget the fact that Fraser is smart enough to get into Harvard but not smart enough to back up or copy his thesis. Because if we were to allow logic into our minds then our hearts would follow. See what I'm saying.
What is an uncanny coincidence is that I brought a homeless man into my thesis defense. Regrettably the man could not enlighten my professors, but he did leave a funny smell in the room after he had asked them all for spare change. This was not one of those "noble homeless" that Pesci portrays here so unconvincingly. It was one of the mentally challenged people whose very existence, is filled with desperation and indignity.
I only hope this movie does not damage all the progress that the homeless have made in this country. If the average citizen believes that the only thing holding back the homeless is their "live for today, make yourself happy" attitude, then we're in worse shape than I ever thought.
Get That Boy A Floppy Disk...
I couldn't help being impressed by the favorable comments some of the "citizen reviewers" (as I like to refer to us) have posted below. I sometimes write reviews in a kind of pseudo-professional mode--and sometimes do just the opposite. But it's always interesting to me to see the disparity (and occasional congruity) between the views of the pros (for which nowadays you only have to consult "rottentomatoes.com")and us amateurs (as exemplified here).
But when I am not playing critic, I sometimes recall playing actor, artist, singer or actor myself (done the amateur thing in all of those realms too) and become perhaps a little more appreciative of and grateful for the "non-professional" point of view. Sometimes the non-professional audience "gets" the point of a work more readily and more completely than the more jaded critical corps.
None of this is to imply that WITH HONORS (the movie I am ostensibly reviewing here) is a particularly good film. It really isn't. The filmmakers have their hearts in the right place, but this story of an ambitious young grad student learning some valuable life lessons at the hands of street wise and plain old philosophically wise middle aged bum (Joe Pesci) is fairly predictable and not much to write home (or to write a thesis) about.
And of course the college thesis written by college whiz Montgomery Kessler (Frazer) is the plot device that gets action (and all the warm vibes) going. Young Monty loses his sole copy of his academic masterpiece (has this genius never heard of FLOPPIES?) only to find that it about to become kindling for the proud and unbowed bum, Simon Wilder (Pesci), who generously offers NOT to burn the young scholar's work in exchange for help and sustenence. Well, you can pretty much guess what's going to happen next. The natural resentment and qualified disgust Monty feels toward Simon will soon enough give way to friendship and respect. And this nose-to-the-grindstone academic noodge will soon learn about *LIFE* from this graduate of the School of Hard Knocks.
Of course, almost no sooner does their friendship take root than it is discovered that Simon also has a fatal disease (asbestiosis, which has its roots in Simon's years in the Merchant Marine--so, you see, he is a victim of the system). He will die, we will soon see, rejected by his own family BUT embraced by his new-found family (Monty and his housemates).
It's a variation on a theme older than the movies BUT it's reasonably well acted, well photographed and competently directed (not really a bad beginning for first time dramatic director Alek Kesheshian--whose previous work included the Madonna doc TRUTH OR DARE). And while I don't think it deserves kudos, every film finds its audience (well, not EVERY film, but a good many), and for younger viewers who haven't been brought up on a steady diet of hokum, it could even be a refreshing change of pace from their steady diet of special effects action films.
Critics and sometimes we older viewers tend to forget that our "old hat" may be new for SOMEBODY. I'm sure it comes as a kind of comfort to those who were involved in the making of the movie that it does indeed seem to have found its audience, and that it may have had a real impact on some viewers. And that counts for something. As those fans of WITH HONORS get older--and perhaps a little more jaded themselves--they might even find that they understand and even begin to agree with the criticisms levied against this film. But they will probably still look back at it affectionately. And they may re-watch it (perhaps) furtively. At that point, they might start to consider it a guilty pleasure. But it's nothing to feel particularly guilty about. It's an OK film with an OK message and some good acting.
That too counts for something.
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