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just a reviewer wrote on 05/21/2011:

.......in a new subclass of male / female sexuality: "STI-FLEXUALS."

(( "STI-FLEXUALITY".......it's a whole new word.....a whole new descriptive title for a subclass of human sexuality. Beginning today, there is not only Heterosexuality....Homosexuality....Bisexuality..., BUT also this new subcategory. And endemic to this subclass of "Stifled Sexuality" comes a new label for the Killer Fear that suppressing such feelings and behavior generates in us: "Closetophobia".....fear of coming out of the you-know-what )).

Given us by this film.....this writer.....this director and, ultimately, by Harry himself.....are vividly disturbing scenes of the devastating emotional and physical damages that such "Stifling" of our own sexual needs and desires can bring about. Following is just a very short list of some of those damages:

- Very often, unhappiness and a sense of not having succeeded on the part of any spouse caught up in a marriage to a "Sti-flexual" partner (divorce is often the outcome)..

- Frequently, lack of closeness and connection between the "Sti-flexual" parent and his / her children, if any.

- In most cases there is the despair and sense of non-worth which can, for years, smolder within the "Sti-flexual" (even suicide has been a drastic result).

- Lastly, attempts in situations like this to "make it right"...."make up for it".....are often not successful. So ask yourself after viewing this film----Has Harry succeeded in doing so....or hasn't he?

Thanks, Harry, the trip's been fun!

(( PS--So, has this movie only been talking about Harrry.....or perhaps me.....or perhaps YOU.....as well? ))

****

Grady Harp wrote on 12/08/2010:

HANDSOME HARRY is a brave little film, written by Nicholas T. Proferes and directed by Bette Gordon, a film that should be required viewing as the absurdities of the 'Don't ask, Don't tell' debate continue to divide this country. This is a script so tightly and beautifully constructed that it poses questions to the audience and lets the audience arrive at its own conclusions. It is a searingly intense story, successful in the manner in which the director allowed the cast of extraordinary actors to simply let the tale play out. There is a profound honesty here that is rarely found in other films that take on tough subjects, and without preaching, sermonizing, or taking sides it simply places an incident before our eyes, allowing the incident and its subsequent permutations of its consequences mold the characters we meet.

Harry Sweeney (Jamey Sheridan, a brilliant stage actor who should have been considered for an Oscar for this performance) is Handsome Harry - calm, somewhat secretive middle-aged man living in a small town where he is known as a good guy and a good singer to the acquaintances in the town diner. Divorced, father to a son Bobby (Asher Grodman) with whom he has difficulty relating, Harry is considering selling his electronic shop to his sole employee Pauley (Bill Sage) when Bobby arrives from Chicago for a strained weekend visit. The visit is interrupted by a telephone call from Kelley (Steve Buscemi) who is hospitalized with only days to live: Kelley insists he speak with Harry and out of obligation to his old friend Vietnam war buddy, Harry goes out of town for the visit. Kelley shares his tortured secret with Harry: thirty years ago while serving in the Navy Kelley and Harry were in a tight group of sailors - Harry, Kelley, Porter (Aidan Quinn), Rheems (John Savage), Gebhardt (Titus Welliver) and Kagan (Campbell Scott) - and in a drunken brawl all of the group subjected Kagan to a beating because of homophobia: all of the men participated in the cruel act but one crushed the jazz pianist Kagan's right hand with an armature, destroying the hand from ever performing again. Kelley's reason for calling Harry is that Kelley believes he was the one who crushed Kagan's hand and wants Harry to find Kagan and ask him for forgiveness. Kelley dies after Harry promises o fulfill his mission.

Harry sets out to find Kagan on trail of all of his group of fellows who served in Vietnam thirty years ago. We meet each one: Porter is a professor who has distanced himself in name and place from the shame of the incident; Rheems is a wealthy land investor whose marriage is crumbling under the strain of alcohol, homophobia, and dark memories and Harry's unwanted visit results in Rheems throwing his wife Judy (Mariann Mayberry) out along with Harry; Gebhardt has become a evangelistic redneck who also is blinded by homophobia. None of the men will discuss the old incident or assist Harry in defining whether Kelley was responsible for the crushing injuring or not. Harry finds Kagan's address, and when Kagan isn't home he leaves a note with Kagan's housekeeper explaining his visit. Harry returns home, distraught, emotionally exhausted, desiring an end to the lingering nightmare of that beating thirty years ago. After singing in a quartet contest Harry spies Kagan in the audience and the two leave for a dinner in a deserted restaurant. There Kagan shares ALL of the truth about the incident and about his relationship with Harry and the film ends quietly and painfully with the truth being on the table.

Every member in the cast is a first class actor, but
the profound depth of Jamey Sheridan's recreation of the role of Harry is simply stunning. Buscemi, Quinn, and especially Campbell Scott also provide powerful performances. The film is haunted by the music of Anton Sanko and cinematographer Nigel Bluck sustains the mood of the piece with a fine grasp of just how much of each of the characters' physical features to show to make the story propel. Director Bette Gordon should be honored not only for the brilliance of her direction but also for the courage in sharing this sensitive story that is one of the strongest views of the inequities of the current military/governmental debate about equality in the military. Brilliant film!

Grady Harp

Amos Lassen wrote on 10/02/2010:

“Handsome Harry”
Looking at Masculinity
Amos Lassen
Harry (Jamey Sheridan) is no longer as handsome as he once was but he still looks good. He lives in a small town now that he is divorced from his wife and having had problems with his son. He surprisingly receives a phone call from a Navy pal (Steve Buscemi) who is dying and wants to clear his conscience from something that happened with Harry some years before. This causes Harry to take off on a road trip to look for other Navy buddies and reliving a terrible event that none of them has been able to forget. The event was a gay bashing of a fellow seaman but this is just the beginning. This is a film that will make you think and Jamey Sheridan gives a powerful performance as he hints at his own repressions.
Bette Gordon has directed this dark film and she creates quite an atmosphere. I was quite disturbed by the film as it has something very powerful to say about the way we behave.
They call him “Handsome” Harry Sweeney. At 52, the Vietnam veteran has kept some of his rugged good looks. He is an electrician by trade who loves to sing and is liked by everyone but for some reason he never lets anyone get too close. Harry gets a call from a former Navy buddy, Tom Kelly, whom he hasn’t seen in some thirty years and who is on his deathbed and terrified of going to Hell. He convinces Harry to seek forgiveness on his behalf from a comrade they betrayed long ago, David Kagan.
At first, Harry wants nothing to do with any of this but he relents because of feelings of guilt and drives down the East Coast to see his old comrades. One by one he confronts them and it is clear they are haunted by their past.
“Handsome Harry” is a psychological mystery that deals with lost love, forgiveness, and the effect the “code of silence” has over men and their relationships. Each encounter both clarifies and further clouds the truth that haunts Harry. But can Harry confront that truth? Harry wonders if he will ever find forgiveness.
One way to think of “Handsome Harry” is as a revenge movie that is backwards and inside out. The bad guys take revenge on themselves and thirty-three years after the event, they're still eaten away by guilt. Finally one of them goes on a kind of pilgrimage to ask forgiveness from the person who was shamed and violated.
“Do you remember what happened that night”? opens each meeting that Harry has.
The victim. Kagan (Campbell Scott), once a concert pianist, finally makes an appearance, although not in the expected way. Kagan is a passive revenge who has waited. We learn that Harry's sin came from a different place than his buddies' blind, stupid prejudice.

Underneath the revenge story in Handsome Harry is a kind of ghost story. Those ghosts aren't just the victims of hate and victimizers as well. They have been, disfigured by a violent, senseless world and are men like Harry who are pale shadows having killed what was best in themselves.
The film has an anachronistic concern with guilt and recognition of our common concern and it is the remarkable depth of Sheridan's performance will be a surprise for anyone who sees “Handsome Harry”.