A Stylish, Moody Foreboding in ‘With a Friend Like Harry’

Dominik Moll’s “With a Friend Like Harry,” a terrific thriller of psychological suspense, kicks off by picking out a car on a highway. At the wheel is Michel (Laurent Lucas), a nice-looking, thirtysomething man with a pretty wife, Claire (Mathilde Seigner), and three infant daughters who are behaving as you would expect when they’re hot, tired and in the car too long. There’s nothing out of the ordinary about this attractive family; Michel teaches Japanese to the French, presumably in Paris, and they’re headed for the countryside where in a remote area they own an ancient stone farmhouse that they’re renovating.

Eventually Michel pulls over to a roadside convenience store and gas station, and is washing his hands in the men’s room when he’s approached by a stocky guy (Sergi Lopez) with boyish looks. Michel neither recognizes nor remembers Lopez’s Harry from high school, but Harry gradually awakens his memories. Michel and Claire pass on Harry’s invitation to dinner with him and his luscious-looking girlfriend Plum (Sophie Guillemin)--they feel tired and dirty, plus they’ve got the kids, one of whom is not feeling well.

But Harry suggests that he and Plum, who actually had been headed in the other direction, should follow them to their country place. Michel and Claire don’t quite know how to say no.

Michel and Claire admit they’ve taken on too much with the old house. It requires too much work and time, not to mention money, to fix it up properly. With the children, the projects Michel has lined up and little chance for rest, Michel and Claire are too distracted to take much stock of Harry, who in fact is a fairly affable guy, if overly eager to please. Plum is sweet and naive and takes to the children as swiftly as they to her. Without Michel and Claire really noticing, Harry and Plum have made themselves at home.

There’s something unsettling about Harry, who explains that he lives off his investments from an inheritance. Lopez has risen to international attention in a series of films, including “An Affair of Love” and “Western,” in which he plays nice, even wistful guys. Harry has some of these qualities, too, but he can change in an instant, experiencing waves of rage over matters of importance only to him.

What is most striking about Harry is that he remembers a poem Michel wrote in school and can recite it perfectly, just as he can recall the chapter in a surreal novel, “The Flying Monkeys,” that Michel never completed. Harry is dismayed that Michel did not keep up with his writing and Michel begins to think he has the talent that would allow him to transcend his mundane existence and its constant, wearying demands. But why is Harry so obsessed with Michel’s teenage literary efforts and so insistent about their brilliance? Or is it Michel he’s obsessed with?

Moll, in only his second feature, evokes a sense of foreboding, playing the routine against the unnerving, the humorous against the sinister, with a wit and deftness that might have impressed Hitchcock. With assurance, Moll turns the screws ever tighter, generating fear and suspense without predictability. Moll’s sense of style and command of mood is matched by his skill with actors, each of whom is persuasive, especially Lopez.

* MPAA rating: R, for language, some violence and a scene of nudity. Times guidelines: The violence is swift but shocking, and the nudity is discreet.

‘With a Friend Like Harry’

Laurent Lucas: Mich Sergi Lopez: Harry

Mathilde Seigner: Claire

Sophie Guillemin: Plum

A Miramax Zoe release of a Diaphana Films M6 production with the participation of Canal Plus, M6 du Centre National de la Cinematographie in association with La Sofica Sofinergie 5 with the support of La Procirep. Director Dominik Moll. Producer Michel Saint-Jean. Screenplay by Dominik Moll and Gilles Marchand. Cinematographer Matthieu Poirot-Delpech. Editor Yannick Kergoat. Music David Sinclair Whittaker. Art director Michel Barthelemy. In French, with English subtitles. Running time: 1 hour, 57 minutes.

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