2 Minute Review: Harold and Maude

I write them in 10, you read them in 2. Here is another 2 minute review for you reading pleasure!




Sometimes, if you run a movie blog site, you have to review movies that are not so good. Harold and Maude is not a particularly good movie.

Released in 1971, Harold and Maude was quickly labeled unconventional. But at this time, the "New Hollywood" scene had gripped Hollywood as young directors looking to make a name for themselves generally went against the norm.

Harold is a smart 20 year-old kid. But he has an obsession with suicide, and throughout the movie he displays this through means of elaborately staged suicide attempts in an effort to freak out his mother and the girls she tries to set him up with through a computer analyzed dating questionnaire. Maude is a free spirited 79 year old, who along with Harold, has the hobby of going to funerals for fun. Coincidentally, that is where they meet.

One thing leads to another and they swiftly become friends (and much more later, if you get my drift) as they delight in one another's oddities. They see a little of themselves in each other, and each learn a little something about themselves as they learn more about the other.

I personally did not like this film. I understood some of the messages it was trying to display, but on the whole the movie fell flat for me. It is a comedy, and while I understand that, it just wasn't that funny. But maybe that has something to do with the time we live in. Who knows? For the most part I would not recommend this unless you would like to watch some pretty awesome "attempted suicides" by Harold. And that is the end of my 10!