Must See French Film -With A Friend Like Harry

It takes nearly an hour for anything unusual to happen in With a Friend Like Harry, but that first hour is oddly unsettling. German filmmaker Dominik Moll reveals the trouble with Harry (Sergi López) with low-key precision, his thriller sensibility channeled from Hitchcock through Claude Chabrol, while emphasizing casual conversation in the style of Eric Rohmer. Harry's found Michel (Laurent Lucas) in a public restroom, identifying himself as an old schoolmate who remembers far too much about Michel, even though Michel has no recollection of Harry at all. But Harry's an ingratiating type, and nice enough on the surface, so Michel invites Harry and his girlfriend, Plum (Sophie Guillemin), to the summer cottage he's renovating with his wife, Claire (Mathilde Seigner), and their three young daughters. The Spanish actor López (from An Affair of Love) modulates his performance so carefully that Harry's psychosis--never explained, but strangely compelling--reverberates well beyond the film's shocking conclusion.