Wild About Harry

Wild About Harry is a hugely disappointing missed opportunity to talk about an issue ripe for exploration. While it attempts to show the depth of commitment two gay men have to each other, it presents this notion in a format reminiscent of old TV family comedies, superficially and stereotypically, with no attempt made to answer the difficult questions this story raises. Why did a gay man marry a presumably straight woman in the first place? It's important to remind current generations that gay people struggled to hide their orientation in conventional marriages not so long ago. Was the woman he married also gay, trying to hide her orientation from an inhospitable world as well? Was Harry secretly involved with Theodore all through his marriage? If not, how do he and Theodore seem so well established as a couple from the opening moments of the movie? If yes, did Harry's wife know? Is Harry bisexual? If not, how did he manage to have two kids with his wife? These are certainly questions his daughters would have had. To not answer them seems like an irresponsible evasion that lets both his kids and the audience down.

Josh Peck delivers one moving speech about the importance of family in a movie that should have been full of them. Otherwise, the script, direction, and much of the acting provide us with a long list of bad choices. Why is American actor Donovan using an absurd British accent? Donovan's struggle with the accent is a distraction. Other characters' accents are all over the place as well as some mangled attempts at a New England accent. One woman seems to be mildly British. Why? The issue of hidden gayness is far more successfully explored in Brokeback Mountain, Beginners, and Moonlight. The many permutations of the human heart and human sexuality could've been delved into here but the filmmakers either could not, or chose not, to go to any of these interesting places.