Harry and the Hendersons

Directed by William Dear, Harry and the Hendersons follows John Lithgow’s George Henderson as he and his family encounter a bona fide bigfoot (Kevin Peter Hall’s Harry) while on a camping trip and decide to take him home with them. It’s an agreeably larger-than-life premise that’s employed to erratic yet mostly satisfying effect by Dear, as the filmmaker, armed with a script written alongside William E. Martin and Ezra D. Rappaport, delivers an amiable comedy that benefits substantially from the stellar work of its various performers – with Lithgow’s predictably compelling efforts here matched by a roster of such eclectic costars as David Suchet, Don Ameche, and M. Emmet Walsh. (Hall’s superb turn as the lovable Harry, which is enhanced by Rick Baker’s astounding special-effects work, remains a continuing highlight within the proceedings, to be sure.) And although the 110 minute runtime does result in a handful of palpable lulls, with, especially, the movie’s first half riddled with padded-out sequences that wreak havoc on its momentum, Harry and the Hendersons eventually progresses into an increasingly compelling midsection and climactic stretch that boasts a far more engrossing and involving feel than one might’ve initially anticipated – which, when coupled with an impressively heartfelt finale, cements the picture’s place as a solid endeavor that should’ve topped out at around an hour-and-a-half.

*** out of ****

Leave a comment