Come Harry divenne un albero

I rented this movie for the simple reason that Cillian Murphy is in it, an actor with great range, great talent, and I can't stop staring at him sometimes. In any case, I really tried to see the humor, and it was mildly funny, at first. Of course, it's not that funny a movie, it's quite sad and insane. I've never had anything against Colm Meaney, but his descent into utter irrationality was more irritating to me than anything else. The landscape, the town, the pub - all of it was just too depressing without really giving any meat to chew on. Watching this movie will make you feel damp and cold, without any possibility of getting warm again. Another piece of advice for the director: if you're going to include a love scene, perhaps it shouldn't be the same tender, dispassionate kissing going on for 4 shots too long. Just because there was good light that day doesn't make it a good scene, and more time doing nothing doesn't add weight or develop characters.

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.

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.

As an American, it took me a bit to get used to the language of rural Ireland in the 1920's, but this film draws you into a world that seems not at all foreign after a while. Unlike the relentlessly depressing "The Field", this is a drama of real tragedies - the small, silly tragedies that we create and that are created for us- and also, of real hope. The original Irish title of this film "How Harry Became a Tree" is so much more fitting than the US "Bitter Harvest" (what were they thinking?), though fortunately the brilliant allegory of the tree is not lost with the title change. Performances are universally outstanding and poignant, the photography beautiful, the music haunting. See this film and see how the Irish continue to astonish with their mastery of language and vision.

I had the pleasure of seeing the world premiere of this film at the Toronto International Film Festival. It is a wonderfully funny movie with a great performance by Colm Meaney.

The script borrows from a Chinese story, but is placed in Ireland. The film is well-paced, beautifully shot, and includes wonderful performances by all involved.