Avec les félicitations du jury

I don't know why this movie is classified under "comedy"... It's one of the most serious and thoughtful movies I've seen in a while. The plot twists were unpredictable, for me at least, and although it didn't have a "happy" ending, it was very well done.

I'll admit; "With Honors" grew on me. Initially, I was cool towards it as it looked like some pretentious drivel, but as the movie progressed it grew on me.

The movie begins with Montgomery "Monty" Kessler (Brendan Frasier) dropping his thesis into a grate where it fell down into the boiler room of a library. By the time he hobbled down there to retrieve it a homeless man named Simon B. Wilder (Joe Pesci) was burning some pages to keep a fire going. When Monty tried to stop him, he attacked him with a metal pipe.

Right then and there I had a problem with the movie. A.) why would he grab what clearly looked like important documents and start burning them? B.) who puts paper in a boiler furnace to keep the fire stoked? C.) what was his deal attacking a student of the university he was squatting in?

This thesis was of the utmost importance to Monty because it was going to allow him to graduate with honors--hence the title. Simon, however, kept the remainder of the thesis hostage from Monty, whom he derisively called "Harvard," as a means of getting certain benefits from Monty (food, shelter, and other perks). All the while Simon is keeping the thesis hostage and only handing over a page per perk, he is carrying this air of moral superiority and prejudging Monty because he assumed Monty had prejudged him (the best defense is a good offense approach). Simon kept up this demeaning holier-than-thou charade long enough to where I was thinking, "This movie better correct itself soon because they're making this into a rich v. poor thing where the poor guy is inherently morally better because of his poverty."

Simon struck me as a cross between Robin Williams' character in "The Fisher King," and Ethan Hawke's character in "Reality Bites." Like Williams in "The Fisher King," Pesci was a short, pudgy, bearded homeless man with above average intelligence. Like Hawke in "Reality Bites," Pesci was almost misanthropic, totally demeaning, and arrogant with his sense of superiority because he isn't a slave to capitalism.

So, I was down on Simon and the entire movie to begin with. Then, just as the relationship between Simon and Monty grew, so did my enjoyment of the movie. It developed into a wonderful human-interest story with a side helping of a tolerable romance between Monty and his roommate Courtney Bloomenthal (Moira Kelly). I say tolerable romance because it wasn't too thick.

I liked "With Honors" as a complete project and I'm glad I gave it a chance.

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.

So i caught this movie in the store and thought I'd give it a go because of Joe Pesci and Brendan Frasier. It's a very rewarding movie about life, and how sometimes we need to step back and see that we're all human. I'll definatly have to commend Brendan on his acting, a great job, and he's won new respect. Heartwarming film.

This is a fantastic movie and I loved it! Basically, Monty is a Harvard student who thinks he knows it all and is writing his senior thesis but while running to make a copy of it (cliche, his computer crashed and he only has one copy) he slips and his work falls into the hands of Harvard bum Simon. What ensues can only be described as "masterful" as Monty and Simon develop as the story continues with different little twists and an ending that leaves you in tears. You can really FEEL the portrayal of the characters from Pesci and Fraser, but adding Patrick Dempsey, Moira Kelly, and Josh Hamilton completes the group. It is truly a beautiful film.