With Honors (1994)

User Rating:

6.2/10   

Director:

Alek Keshishian

Writer (WGA):

William Mastrosimone (written by)

Release Date:

29 April 1994 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama

Plot:

Convinced he'll graduate with honors because of his thesis paper, a stuffy Harvard student finds his paper being held hostage by a homeless man, who might be the guy to school the young man in life.

Plot Keywords:

Harvard | Law School | Leg Shaving | College | Terminal Illness

Awards:

Nominated for Golden Globe. Another 2 nominations

Cast

Joe Pesci	...	Simon Wilder
Brendan Fraser	...	Montgomery 'Monty' Kessler
Moira Kelly	...	Courtney Blumenthal
Patrick Dempsey	...	Everett Calloway
Josh Hamilton	...	Jeffrey Hawks
Gore Vidal	...	Prof. Pitkannan
Deborah Lake Fortson	...	Homeless Woman
Marshall Hambro	...	Chuck, Security Guard
Melinda Chilton	...	Helga
Harve Kolzow	...	Harvard Cop
James Deuter	...	Judge
Caroline Gibson	...	Donation Student
M. Lynda Robinson	...	Newspaper Purchaser #1
Richard Auguste	...	Newspaper Purchaser #2
Patricia B. Butcher	...	Librarian

Runtime:

103 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Iceland:L | South Korea:15 | Singapore:PG | Argentina:13 | Australia:PG | Sweden:7 | UK:PG | USA:PG-13 | Finland:S

Filming Locations:

Boston Athenaeum - 10½ Beacon Street, Boston, Massachusetts, USA

Company:

Spring Creek Productions

Trivia:

Edward Norton auditioned for a role.

Goofs:

Continuity: In the library, Monty closes the Walt Whitman book and puts it on the table. The camera pulls back and shows Monty looking around. The book is no longer on the table or in his hand.

Quotes:

Simon Wilder: Yes I'm a bum. But I'm a Harvard bum.

Movie Connections:

Featured in The 52nd Annual Golden Globe Awards (1995) (TV)

Soundtrack:

Fuzzy

Seeing It With a Homeless Person

I saw this film when it first came out and as it turned out I saw it with someone who spent a few stretches of his life homeless. The late David T. Frank was most moved by the film and I take that as the highest possible accolade.

In a day and age when so few of us put anything aside as a cushion against hard times, lots of people are one paycheck away from being as homeless as Joe Pesci was here. Others like Pesci, have a debilitating illness and there's no place for them. The saddest of all are some of those with mental illnesses who are surviving on medication to keep psychoses under control.

Brendan Fraser is a Harvard undergraduate who is writing his senior thesis when his computer crashes, leaving him with only one printed out copy. I've had the experience of losing valuable files when the hard drive I'm writing this review crashed, so I know exactly where he was coming from.

Topping that off he loses that copy to Joe Pesci who's made himself a makeshift shelter in the boiler room of the Harvard library. Fraser finds Pesci throwing his thesis page by page into the boiler for some heat.

Pesci's got him by the short hairs and they make an incredible bargain. He'll give Fraser back his thesis page by page for favors done. Incredibly he accepts the deal.

More incredibly the two of them form a unique bond and Pesci goes to live with Fraser and his roommates, Moira Kelly, Patrick Dempsey and Josh Hamilton. Of the group of them I really enjoyed Hamilton's portrayal of the uptight pre-med student.

The four Harvard kids learn a whole lot about life and what's really important in it. And I think they all will graduate life with honors.

This review is respectfully dedicated to David T. Frank who checked out of life way too soon. Brendan, Joe, and the rest of the cast, this film deeply moved him, good job folks.