Robert Loggia is the ultimate supporting player, a cantankerous soul whose gruff exterior makes almost any film better.
Even, gasp, forgettable projects like “I Love Trouble” and “Innocent Blood.”
So it’s easy to greet “Harvest,” which made its Starz Denver Film Festival debut Nov. 9, with a heady sense of anticipation. Loggia plays the dying patriarch of a dysfunctional family, but he’s not about to stop living while cancer consumes his remaining days.
Loggia is just as good as expected – tart, acerbic and proud in the face of his diagnosis. But the rest of the film flounders. It’s a collection of lackluster characters alternately moping over their lives and mourning the main character’s death sentence.
Loggia plays Siv, a crusty old timer locked in a losing battle with pancreatic cancer. He’s dying, but he’s still looks hearty and grumbles when his well-intentioned daughter Anna (Victoria Clark) feeds him “health food” instead of a mouth-watering steak.
She thinks there’s still a chance he’ll survive, and she rearranges his home to improve its energy flow and consults an alternative medicine specialist to see if there’s any way to prolong his life.
Meanwhile, Siv’s grandson Josh (Jack Carpenter) would rather reunite with his girlfriend then be stuck hanging around his family for a good chunk of the summer. And who could blame him?
Benny (Arye Gross) is obsessed with his father’s will – and tweaking it to his liking, while semi-estranged son Carmine (Peter Friedman) balances his modest political career with frayed family ties.
None of the subplots circling the story leave a vivid impression, although the best moments feature Josh and Siv connecting in a way that’s lacking throughout the rest of the film. Benny’s behavior with the family maid starts and stops with little emotional clarity, and attempts to broaden the story’s focus into the family’s small town provides some beautiful scenery, but not much else.
Only Loggia holds up his end of the bargain, especially how he remains loyal and loving to his wife (Barbara Barrie), a woman lost in the fog of dementia.
“Harvest” isn’t the kind of career capping moment an actor of Loggia’s pedigree deserves. It’s simply another example of an esteemed character actor rising above pedestrian material.
(Photo: Robert Loggia burnishes his film resume with a tender turn in the otherwise forgettable “Harvest.”)
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{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Are you kidding me? I was at the screening on Wednesday night and the place was packed, and absolutely everyone loved this movie. There were so many wonderful & fun parts that just kept me engaged and everyone in the room was so emotionally taken by the journey we went through with this family. The movie was incredibly relatable. One of my favorites that I’ve seen at the festival for sure! The performances by Robert Loggia and Barbara Barrie were just refreshingly naturalistic. And, the main kid who played the grandson, was fantastic. And there so many beautiful scenes. This review just makes no sense to me – it’s like you were at some totally different movie. And it’s completely unfair that you’d put this bitterness out there.
It’s completely unfair that I put this bitterness out there? Do you understand the role of a film critic?
Should I stop reviewing films if I find one I don’t like?
I think I made it perfectly clear here how excited I was to see the film and how great it was to see Loggia get a big, juicy role to show off his chops.