Stealing Harvard Review
by Eugene Novikov (eugenen AT wharton DOT upenn DOT edu)September 13th, 2002
Stealing Harvard (2002)
Reviewed by Eugene Novikov
http://www.ultimate-movie.com/
Starring Jason Lee, Tom Green, Leslie Mann, Dennis Farina, Megan Mullally, Richard Jenkins, John C. McGinley.
Directed by Bruce McCulloch.
Rated PG-13.
"Your American Dream just gave you the finger."
Being perhaps the foremost institution of higher education in America, or at least the symbol thereof, sure takes a toll on the publicity that Harvard University receives. Stealing Harvard is the third movie in two years (following Legally Blonde and How High) to skewer its public image in some way, be it by ridiculing the admission publicy or, in this case, insinuating that the paltry financial aid it offers to its poorer students leaves sympathetic uncles with little choice but robbery in order to cough up the necessary tuition fees. And, to be honest, it isn't bad. Directed by "Kids in the Hall" alum Bruce McCulloch, the movie is certainly superior to the steaming heap of unrealized potential that was Blonde, and it even survives the usually damning presence of Tom Green, who is only mildly annoying rather than infuriating.
The protagonist is a strapping young man named John Plummer (Jason Lee), an employee at a "Homespital" and engaged to be married to the beautiful but fussy Elaine Warner (Leslie Mann), who makes gift baskets for a living and cries hysterically during sex. His ordinary but interesting life grinds to a halt when a promise he made to his niece years ago, after the poor girl was knocked out of the spelling bee on the word "tarp," comes back to haunt him. To reassure the hysterical child, he swore to pay for her college education. Now she has been admitted to Harvard, and the funds collected by the girl, her trailer-trash mother and the university financial aid department leave John with just over $29,000 to scrape up in only a couple of weeks.
John and Elaine have some thirty thousand dollars in their bank account, but he can't touch it because it s the down payment for their dream house as well as the "target" sum upon reaching which they have agreed to marry. He is forced to appeal to his idiot friend Duff (Tom Green), whose ideas are "sometimes so dumb, they're brilliant." Dumb indeed; his initial plan to break into the home of a rich old guy who keeps his safe unlocked backfires when the victim turns out to be at home and makes John dress up as his dead wife and "spoon" with him.
John and Duff's plots become increasingly desperate -- robbing a liquor store, making an unspecified deal with the local mobster -- and increasingly madcap. Meanwhile, Elaine's father (Dennis Farina), who is also John's boss, is on the prowl with his very excitable canine, looking for any excuse to break up the marriage, and the police begin looking for two bumbling idiots who botched a liquor store heist.
I realize that the "Harvard" part of Stealing Harvard is a quickly disposed-of motivation to set Jason Lee and Tom Green on an otherwise unrelated hunt for a large sum of money. It is true, also, that much of the humor here is on the level of something like Saving Silverman, with Steve Zahn and Jack Black combining into a significantly less talented Tom Green and Jason Lee standing in for Jason Biggs. The nadir occurs when the movie resorts to the old "swearing granny" cliche for an easy chuckle. I recommend it nonetheless because of the occasional throwaway flash of something truly clever or high-brow. Example: upon leaving the scene of a hold-up, John tells the cashier to lie down and count to three hundred, and "no counting by base eight, or anything like that." Another brilliant scene has the clearly deranged Rich Guy interrogating John, dressed in drag and about to cry, on events from his past with his deceased wife.
I can't muster much enthusiasm for this movie, or tell you that you should shell out full admission for it. But it does move along at a nice clip, keep Tom Green mostly out of the way, and generate enough laughs to keep most people from tuning out. On a side note, however, can we agree that Jason Lee makes a much better supporting character actor than a comedy leading man?
Grade: B-
©2002 Eugene Novikov
Originally posted in the rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup. Copyright belongs to original author unless otherwise stated. We take no responsibilities nor do we endorse the contents of this review.
