It’s never really a good thing when your movie is released on Video on Demand the same day it opens in the theater. This is slowly changing and becoming a more accepted practice because it helps some of these independent movies earn more money. However, it still means that regardless of how good a movie is (in any category), it is not eligible for Academy Awards nomination consideration. So if it is a movie that you think will be great, you wouldn’t allow it to be available on OnDemand until after he exits the theaters. With that said, I believe that all those involved with this movie (regardless if you loved it or hated it) knew that it would never be in contention for an Oscar award. This is a movie I would not have seen in the theater, and had it not been on OnDemand at the same time as its theater release date, it would have been a movie that I would have missed altogether. Their release plan was a good one. The film, on the other hand, was meh.
The Harvest sets up well. It had the potential to be a fantastic movie. However, it completely fell apart in the end. It reminded me of The Life of David Gale, another film I thought was good until the last 30 minutes. Similar to that movie, The Harvest just got absurd as it headed towards its conclusion. Another film that evokes similarity is The Secret Window. I won’t give away any spoilers here because I think I still might recommend this movie. But, if you are like me, the derailing of this movie will wreck, in 30 minutes, what the film was working for in its first 75. I am unsure what I would have done differently if I had been director John McNaughton (Wild Things, Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer). This movie needed and deserved a better conclusion. I think that much hard work was put forward in wanting this movie to be honest and believable. But the ending isn’t honest, and it certainly isn’t credible. I understand wanting to make a film different from other movies, but, at some point, common sense needs to play out.
Though he isn’t the star of this movie, Michael Shannon (Take Shelter, Revolutionary Road) shines. I don’t love all of his movie choices, but he’s always damn good. He almost stole the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor (Revolutionary Road) and was only in two scenes. In a movie that had, arguably, the greatest actor (Leonardo DiCaprio) and most outstanding actress (Kate Winslet) of our generation, Shannon’s John stole the show as a brilliant mathematician who had lost his grip and has a bitter disdain for society. Since that performance, I have tried to see all of Shannon’s movies. Without a doubt, his best performance is in Take Shelter, in which he plays a husband and father suffering from the onset of Schizophrenia. It is a tremendous film with incredible performances from Shannon and Jessica Chastain, and you should watch it before you read one more single word of this review.
In The Harvest, Shannon plays Richard, a man with a son named Andy, who has a failing heart, and a wife named Katherine (Samantha Morton – In America, Sweet and Lowdown) who will do anything to save him. Shannon can play protagonists and antagonists equally as well. He has played the bad guy a lot in some recent films (probably because his performances are so alive that you feel like you’d be scared to meet Michael Shannon in real life). So seeing him as the good guy/voice of reason in this film was good. The Harvest classified itself as suspense, mystery, and horror. I didn’t find it particularly suspenseful, and it wasn’t a horror outside of the mystique surrounding Katherine. And for a while, it wasn’t a mystery either. It felt kind of like a drama with some underlying tone. You didn’t know what that tone was. But then it starts to get into that The Hand that Rocks the Cradle mode, and things begin to get chilling. Questions arise like how Andy got so sick, why doesn’t he have any friends, and why his mother is so protective of him?
Natasha Calis plays Maryann, an 11 or 12-year-old girl who moves into Andy’s deserted neighborhood to live with her grandparents (including an underutilized Peter Fonda) after the death of her parents. She is not a fan of her new home, particularly the lack of kids her age. She meets Andy while scoping out her new area. She sees him through his bedroom window, and that’s how she gets into his house. Andy can’t move on his own, is more or less confined to his bed, and is also home-schooled. He plays much of his free time playing video games. When his parents find out Maryann and Andy have become friends, Richard is okay with it while Katherine is not. She is wildly wicked. I compare her to Kathy Bates’s character in Misery (and I know others also have). She can be kind to your face but is plotting behind your back.
Katherine is a doctor, and Richard is a nurse. He quit his job to take full-time care of Andy. He still has some connections that allow him to get drugs for Andy (either drugs he doesn’t have a prescription for or gets at a reduced cost). He believes he is over-medicating Andy, but Katherine thinks otherwise. And with all disagreements between the couple, it is Katherine who wins. It is apparent that Andy is getting worse, but we start to wonder if he’s getting the best home care, even if his mom is a doctor and his dad was a nurse. Complicating matters worse is that no one is allowed into the house.
This movie has some twists, for sure. And I mean multiple ones. I didn’t see them coming, and I don’t think you will either. This is what made the movie appealing and helped separate it from other films about terminally ill kids with parents who will do anything to save them. There are also some ethical dilemmas along the way, which are dealt with differently by each character. But the ending doesn’t add up. It’s not only out of tune with the rest of the movie but also feels rushed. I am not saying that the film would have been great without a different ending, but it would have been better.
It’s an okay movie. I didn’t love it, but it held my attention. If it sounds appealing based on my review, ignore my part about the ending and check it out. There are functional pieces in it. You have no idea where it’s going, but it is not frustrating because it develops the plot.
Here is a much better review of this movie than the one I just provided http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/fantasia-review-john-mcnaughtons-the-harvest-starring-michael-shannon-samantha-morton-20140724.
Plot 7.5/10
Character Development 7.5/10
Character Chemistry 7.5/10
Acting 8.5/10
Screenplay 7/10
Directing 7.5/10
Cinematography 7/10
Sound 7/10
Hook and Reel 8/10
Universal Relevance 5/10
72.5%
Movies You Might Like If You Liked This Movie
- Hidden Away
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- You Were Never Really Here
- John and the Hole