Will & Harper: Netflix’s entertaining and enlightening road movie debuts
Saturday, 28 September 2024
REVIEW: If you’ve ever wondered how Will Ferrell came to make Lifetime movie A Deadly Adoption, Spanish-language western Casa de mi Padre and a comedy-musical inspired by Eurovision – meet Harper Steele.
Ever since they first met when they started work on Saturday Night Live in the same week in 1995, writer Steele has helped channel some of the actor’s more eccentric sensibilities into some seriously eclectic and entertaining projects.
But while Ferrell gave life to Robert Benson, Lars Erickssong and a very unique take on actor Robert Goulet, it turns out Harper Steele had been “performing as a character named Andrew” from birth until 2022. That’s when she announced to close family and friends, at age 61, that she was transitioning to become a woman.
“Instead of an asshole, I’ll be a bitch,” she jokes at the start of Netflix’s enlightening and thoroughly entertaining new documentary Will & Harper.
Debuting to a deserved standing ovation at this year’s Sundance Film Festival in January, director Josh Greenbaum’s (Becoming Bond) sensitive and smart road movie is a fascinating look not only at two friends trying to navigate a significant change in their long-standing relationship, but also a snapshot of modern America.
As the pair make their way from New York to Los Angeles, via the likes of Indiana, Iowa Oklahoma, Texas and Nevada over the course of 16 days, Harper revisits old haunts to see how her new persona will be received.
“I am a woman – and that’s how I need to be seen,” she tells Ferrell, while admitting that him “running point” potentially makes things ”a lot easier”. Although, as this refreshingly frank, warts-and-all tale depicts, that’s not always the case.
There’s an unfortunate very public encounter with a bigoted politician and a rather egregious error in judgement involving a steakhouse, a meaty 72-ounce challenge and a Sherlock Holmes costume that causes a significant amount of discomfort.
But although that sequence and one involving “former Air Supply and Bette Midler-manager David Abernathy” veer towards Borat territory, that’s not where Will & Harper’s true sensibilities and strengths lie.
No, the joy of this is in the quieter moments (when Ferrell’s not constantly whining about wanting visit a certain donut chain), as the pair shoot the breeze, work through their new “rules of engagement” and Ferrell attempts to work out how he can best support his beloved friend in this new stage of life.
Whether it’s bingeing on Pringles, jibing each other about their disparate taste in beer, or opening up about their hopes and fears, it’s clear that the two have a deep connection that can even survive such “thoughtful” and “insightful” questions as: “Do you think you’re a worse driver?”.
Will & Harper is now available to stream on Netfix.