Harpoon, written and directed by Rob Grant - Seven out of 10

Harpoon, written and directed by Rob Grant

Seven out of 10

It is difficult to envisage what a fan of the horror genre would make out of this horror comedy movie, for the undersigned is not keen on such features and thus has disliked much of Harpoon, and especially the gory parts.

Furthermore, it is difficult to find something new to include in a film that takes place on a boat – mostly – and only has three characters to throw lines at each other…well, and other things, such as harpoon darts, fists and much more…

If this cinephile would be asked to recommend a motion picture with a similar setting – more or less – and much more rewarding, with a spectacular trio of actors – Sam Neill, Nicole Kidman and Billy Zane – then I would strongly suggest that you watch:

Dead Calm, reviewed here: http://realini.blogspot.com/2017/05/note-on-dead-calm-based-on-novel-by.html

Since we are talking about radiant, if tragic sagas that take place at sea and involve human suffering on a quite larger scale than what happens in Harpoon, bloody as the latter is, you could choose to watch a fabulous work, recently released:

Styx, also noted on the same blog - http://realini.blogspot.com/2019/08/styx-written-by-ika-kunzel-and-wolfgang.html

Returning to Harpoon, the story is about three rather peculiar young people, the rich, extremely impulsive Richard aka Christopher Gray, his girlfriend, Sasha aka Emily Tyra, and the man’s best friend – allegedly – Jonah aka Munro Chambers.

We should also note the narrator, Brett Gelman, whose introduction and explanations are delivers with certain talent.

Indeed, the introductory lines catch the attention of the audience – if only the same level of interest could be maintained throughout – for they refer to …Aristotle.

The genius of antiquity is supposed to have talked about three types of friendship…

-          The useful one, where we gain from the bond

-          Pleasurable connection

-          The one based on mutual respect, which takes time to develop and strengthen seems the most desirable one

Richard learns from some text messages that something may be going on between his lover and his best friend, who communicate over something that their common companion must not know.

Before finding a possible explanation or receiving a denial of some kind, the jealous man - known to burst out in flames of fury and suspected to have killed his former girlfriend, after she declared herself pregnant and unwilling to have an abortion – a cruel tale that we find in the course of the film – punches Jonah repeatedly.

Sasha intervenes and brings out the present – a Harpoon – that his friends had just bought for his birthday and was the subject of the texts that he was to be kept a secret…

The Raging Bull feels like a fool now that he learns about how nice these two people are, how they wanted to make him happy and decides to take them on a day trip to sea, on the boat called the Naughty Boy, or something similar.

Very soon though, the tension escalates and Richard confronts Jonah, sure that his initial suspicion was correct and the two have punched in return, as compensation for his dirty accusations and his previous violence, and the two are about to kill each other, when Sasha comes with the Harpoon, but she accidentally sends an arrow into the hand of her – other – boyfriend…Jonah would have a serious problem with an infected wound.

There are complications, needless to say, for although Richard is sent into the water, he has the keys of the small yacht with him, therefore he can negotiate his survival and extraction from the ocean, with the prospect nevertheless to drift with the others, without food or water, for the vessel was prepared only for a day trip, there are no reserves of food or water and they may have to follow the example from the story we hear, of Richard X, wherein three men are castaways, floating on the ocean in a small boat, resorting to killing a turtle to drink its blood and then eating …one of them…