HARRY, HE'S HERE TO HELP
aka WITH A FRIEND LIKE HARRY
aka HARRY, UN AMI QUI VOUS VEUT DU BIEN
Year: 2000
USA: Miramax Films
UK: Artificial Eye
Cast: Laurent Lucas, Sergi López, Mathilde Seigner, Sophie Guillemin, Laurie Caminata, Lorena Caminata, Victoire de Koster, Dominique Rozan, Liliane Rovere, Michel Fau
Director: Dominik Moll
Country: France
Language: French
USA: 117 mins
UK: 116 mins
USA Rated: R for language, some violence and a scene of nudity
UK Certificate: 15 contains strong language and moderate violence and sex references
USA Release Date: 4 May 2001
USA Release Date: 20 April 2001 (Limited Release - Los Angeles and New York)
UK Release Date: 10 November 2000
Synopsis
From the 2000 Cannes Film Festival, comes the spine-tingling French psychological thriller that has surprised and gripped audiences: HARRY, HERE'S HERE TO HELP aka WITH A FRIEND LIKE HARRY...
A spiraling descent into fear and the perils of relationships in the tradition of Hitchcock, HARRY, HERE'S HERE TO HELP aka WITH A FRIEND LIKE HARRY... begins on a quietly ominous note as family man Michel (Laurent Lucas) sets out for his summer home in the countryside with his wife Claire (Mathilde Seigner) and their three screaming infant daughters. A blistering heatwave and the increasingly cranky children force the family to make a pitstop. In the rest area, Michel bumps into Harry (Sergi Lopez - A Pornographic Affair), an old school classmate he doesn't remember but who seems to remember Michel fondly. Harry, so impressed with Michel when they were younger, even recites from memory a poem Michel wrote as a teenager.
Soon, Harry and his voluptuous fiancee, Plum (Sophie Guillemin), are joining Michel's family on their vacation, Harry seems to be just what the family needs - his carefree spirit and charm light up Michel's mundane little holiday, allowing him to let go. Yet the friendlier Harry gets and the more generosity and advice he bestows on Michel, the more mysteriously menacing his effect becomes and Michel begins to suspect that things are not as they should be...