Mrs. Harris
Mrs. Harris
| 25 February 2006 (USA)
Mrs. Harris Trailers

Based on the sensational 1980s media event, famed cardiologist Herman Tarnower meets a particularly brutal end at the hands of his jilted lover, Jean Harris.

Reviews
Laikals The greatest movie ever made..!
Sexylocher Masterful Movie
Neive Bellamy Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.
Myron Clemons A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.
funkyfry An extraordinarily talented cast gathered for director Phylis Nagy's made for TV crime and punishment opus. The results aren't astounding (like, for example, "Reversal of Fortune"), but it's certainly interesting as a character study.The story begins abruptly; rather than introduce the characters and setting, we are thrust into the primary "crime scene". Jean Harris (Annette Bening) confronts Dr. Herman Tarnower in his home and he urges her to sleep it off. Telling him that she drove 4 hours just to spend a few minutes with him, she produces a revolver and attempts to kill herself. In the process of attempting to stop her, the doctor is severely injured by 3 gunshot wounds. Once the "crime" is out of the way, the film goes back in time to fill us in on the background events that led to these events.My feelings about the film are mixed. The performances are solid, and Kingsley is worth watching in just about anything. He's got a very interesting character here – a total narcissist whose main virtue seems to be the fact that he's so open and honest about it. His crowded room of hunting trophies symbolizes rather blatantly his attitudes about life in general, and women in particular.He's not a very sympathetic character, but no matter how hard the film seems to try I just can't find Jean to be in the "right" here. First of all, I find the depiction of the crime which is shown later in the film based on the prosecution's evidence to be far more likely than the first version we're shown. Even allowing some room for the film to be ambiguous about its goals and giving them credit for showing the prosecution version, I think a number of factors tilt this film strongly in Jean's favor. Basically the film shows Jean as a victim of the doctor, particularly in that it asks us to accept that her depression and violent outburst are the result of her addiction to medication that Dr. Tarnower prescribed for her, and repeatedly reminds us that she took anything and everything he gave her based on faith. The film seems to ask us to hold the doctor responsible for her drug habit, which I find just as unpalatable as her story about the doctor being "accidentally" shot 3 times is untenable. Bening is a fine actress but she can't create pathos where none really belongs. The film is too heavy-handed in asking us to see things from her perspective, even going so far as to basically lampoon the doctor's living relatives and friends who doubt Jean's story and blame her for his death by directing these actors (including Cloris Leachman) in a ridiculous over-the-top manner.This film will hold your attention to the end of its running time, after which point you may feel as I did that you actually wasted your time. That's not to say it's a horrible film, it's just that the story is finally not convincing on a human level because Bening's character is too improbable to generate anything beyond curiosity.
hotfriend1 This is a case of someone speaking as though they saw an entirely different movie. And, I guess, the individual above did."Mrs. Harris" is another solid effort in a long line of memorable HBO movies. But, please, don't take my word for it. Click on the link in the upper left margin of this page, where is says "Awards & Nominations." Is there an Emmy Award that this movie was NOT nominated for? Along with two SAG nominations and a slew of other nominations. I rest my case on that. (No, I don't think it was favoritism.) Two very solid performances by Annette Benning & Sir Ben Kingsley, a strong supporting cast, and a very good script. (Nice soundtrack, too.) Ignore Beavis's drivel and give this one a look.
BreanneB I thought that this film was very nice. Great acting, costumes, production, script, true to the real life events, etc. It is definitely the truth about what really happened and it's definitely not one of those run-of-the-mill t.v. movies. I give it 8/10 stars.This film about Dr.Herman Tarnower's and Jean Harris' longtime on and off relationship is based on the book "Very Much a Lady" by Shanna Alexander. The movie starts off with the shooting and then goes into the story being told by friends, family members, and others who knew both of them. I do have to say that Dr.Tarnower was a playboy who heartlessly used women, even though that is no excuse for Jean killing him. I think that Jean should have served longer in prison for the crime. I also think that this movie should have showen some of her prison life in which she helped others.That is one of the things that I do think she did do right is help others in prison. I think she still is kind of crazy and in denial. This is because she claims that it was an accident, not murder. But it has been proved that is not the case.
MarieGabrielle and anyone with an IQ over 50 will agree about the results of this.A great story deracimated by a Hollywood studio (yet again) underestimating their audience.Annette Bening, Sir Ben Kingsley, Frances Fisher, Frank Whaley, and other talented artists again prove one thesis I have: The most perfect, flawless actor cannot transcend bad writing, and inferior product.This is proof. We need a re-make(soon). Mrs. Harris was a brilliant, over-achieving woman who had an obsessive relationship with Dr. Tarnower. The relationship was complex, and she surely did not act and speak like a brainless plebeian, as she is portrayed in this film. Nor, I am sure, was Tarnower as obviously repulsive. Why is it Hollywood has screenwriters who cannot comprehend intellectuals?. Perhaps they should read the New York Times Book Review at least one time a year, before they propose to understand people who grew up with education, writing, and achievement as a cornerstone, rather than as an aside to the Rolls Royce parked in the garage. Tiresome and ridiculous. 2/10. accomplishment.