How Harry Became a Tree (2001)

Plot so thin, it passes unnoticed.

just watch it!

i know i wasted 90 mins of my life.

This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

When it's all in your head! I found this a bit of an odd movie but I liked it more then I thought I would after the first 10 minutes - 'How Harry Became a Tree' stars Colm Meaney, Cillian Murphy and Adrian Dunbar. It's a 'funny tragedy'.Typically Irish but could easily be transplanted to any nation or any era I imagine. Harry (Meaney) causes a feud when there is no reason for one and entangles his son (Murphy) and locals in a web of deceit and while he plots revenge for many imagined slights.I am Irish and 'How Harry Became a Tree' is set in 1920's Ireland. I always fear that movies set in Ireland in this era give a very bad picture to foreigners about the Ireland of today.There is of course a world of difference between then and now but sometimes Hollywood doesn't seem to have copped on to that - 'Leap Year' being the most recent paddywhackery schtick I can think of.I think 'How Harry Became a Tree' would have been a much better movie if the writer / director / producer etc etc had been brave enough to set it in contemporary Ireland.

I went to see this film with two of my friends, based solely on the title. None of us read any reviews and so were completely suprised by it. We all enjoyed it, despite being the youngest in the audience by about ten years.What can I say, fantastic acting, fantastic story, fantastic script. Thouroghly enjoyable.

There is much laughter from the audience for this wonderful film, but the laughs gradually become uneasy and scarce as we realize this charmingly presented tale is not a comedy but a little tragedy, after all. The ineffable Colm Meaney (as Harry Maloney) gives the performance of a lifetime as an ignorant but sly peasant farmer who happens to be Irish, but could be any nationality. The story is from a Chinese source; a multinational cast and crew underscore the point. Think Balkans; think Chechyna; think Quebec; think Alabama -- rural places where people have hated others for so long no one knows why. It's a classic tragic tale: Harry entangles his family and neighbors in his web of anger and revenge for imagined slights because he really can't do anything else. The skies and hills are stunningly beautiful, and every detail of the film is pitch-perfect. Go, be charmed and laugh, but be prepared to stop laughing when the sadness of these lives overwhelms you. A fine movie!

I went seeing this movie with a group of teaching colleagues at the annual International Film Festival of Gent. It was indeed a festive occasion and we all felt very happy and high-spirited afterwards. I won't easily forget this film and will always highly recommend it to all the people I love, not in the least the students that have been appointed to me.For indeed I believe in the introductory comment by Goran Paskaljevic, the director of this beautiful film, whose presence together with that of the wonderfully acting Colm Meany was of course also part of an utmost enjoyable cinematographic evening.Mr Paskaljevic expressed two things during the measured time of the interview. He hoped that the audience would have a real good laugh and that after leaving his film one would consider the reason(s) for having an enemy.I forgot about the audience, but the movie did certainly make me laugh. And there can only be one consideration : how unwise it is to have an enemy in one's lifetime. Harry did not become the tree of life.