One of the many virtues of American independent film is that it provides character actors who are too anonymous and not bankable enough to be entrusted with carrying a studio film a chance to shine in leading roles. Jamey Sheridan, a square-jawed actor with nearly 60 credits to his name who is perhaps best known for playing the satanic villain Randall Flagg in the TV mini-series adaptation of Stephen King's The Stand, gets such an opportunity in Handsome Harry (2010, Bette Gordon), which he also co-produced. And, to put it bluntly, I had no idea he could be so good.
Sheridan just slides right into the role of Harry Sweeney as if it was a second skin. Harry is an electrician nearing retirement who, on a day when his adult son is visiting, gets a surprise call from Tommy Kelley (Steve Buscemi), an old friend who served with him in the Navy decades ago and who is now on his deathbed. Tommy's dying request is that Harry find David Kagan, another ex-Navy man who Harry, Tommy, and a few other sailors beat to near-death during their service after David made a pass at Harry, and seek forgiveness on behalf of all the assailants.
Harry embarks on a road trip to reunite with the other veterans involved in David's beating, which gives Sheridan the chance to play opposite other skilled character actors of a certain age (including John Savage and Aidan Quinn) and allows the provocative themes inherent in the premise--the way late-in-life regret can gnaw at the soul; the connection between military-bred ideas of masculinity and homophobia--to blossom. But unfortunately, to put it in apt military parlance, Handsome Harry is not all that it can be. Harry's motivation for seeking out everyone involved in the crime instead of just traveling directly to where David is remains fuzzy, rendering the movie's on-the-road mid-section overly schematic. And while the scenes that pair Harry with each old Navy buddy are well-acted, they also careen from relaxed understatement to overwrought hysteria with wild abandon (I didn't need Harry and Quinn's initially-in-denial character to engage in fisticuffs, for example).
Near the beginning of the third act is a major revelation that Gordon and writer Nicholas T. Proferes seem to have only withheld to play coy with the audience, but luckily, this is also where the movie begins to breathe a bit more. Harry attempts to get his post-retirement life in order, and then comes his climactic reunion with the now openly gay David (Campbell Scott). No disrespect to Sheridan's lived-in star performance, but during this pivotal scene, all I could think was, "why doesn't Campbell Scott work more, damnit?!" An actor who exudes intelligence, wit, and sophistication no matter what scripted lines are coming out of his mouth, Scott used to score great leading roles in indies ranging from The Spanish Prisoner to Roger Dodger, but he's lately been off the film-world radar for some reason. I wish he had more than 15 minutes of screentime in Handsome Harry, but my goodness, he makes every one of those minutes count. Grade: B-
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