Months after his girlfriend dumped him, mopey Harmony (Bishop Allen musician Justin Rice) still wears her picture inside a locket around his neck. She broke my heart, he tells everyone he meets (or repeats to those hes already told). Mournfully, he adds, She still hasnt finished the job, shes still at it. He loves regaling people with the sad facts. Its his mantra, giving him will to live.
The slacker comedy Harmony and Me, a film from Bob Byington (Shameless, Registered Sex Offender), is the ultimate indie movie: low-rent, with truly awful camerawork, but redolent of off-beat charm with its clever script (by Byington) and improvisational handling of actors.
Harmonys heartache gets no respect from his unsympathetic friends and coworkers (Kevin Corrigan, Alex Karpovsky, Pat Healy) or even his mom (Houstonian Margie Beegle), but a sideways perseverance and grudging acceptance keep this dopey mope going. I grew up with limited access to mental health, Harmony says with perfect deadpan. The Los Angeles Times reported, Though at first seemingly offhanded to the point of haphazard, the film reveals itself to have a finely tuned construction and acute sense of rhythm and character laugh-out-loud comedy and subtle, unexpected emotional clarity.
Margie Beegle will be in attendance for todays screening. 7 pm. Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, 1001 Bissonnet. For information, call 713-639-7515 or visit www.mfah.org. $6 to $7.
Fri., June 3, 7 p.m., 2011
This article appears in May 19-25, 2011.
