Harold and Maude

A young heir (Bud Cort) fond of staging elaborate suicide pranks, finds inspiration in a free-spirited woman (Ruth Gordon) nearing her 80th birthday.

Harold and Maude hasn’t aged well. While it served to usher in the age of contemporary independent cinema, and inspired a generation of filmmakers in the process, the years that have followed have highlighted the film’s biggest weakness, the lack of substance beneath its ample style.

This is a film that looks and plays very much like a Wes Anderson picture, with its quirky characters and artfully composed shots, albeit an Anderson picture without heart. Indeed, Colin Higgins’ script reads more like a rant against authority than anything else, leaving you, at the end of the film, searching for the point.

These are two deeply disturbed characters. Ruth Gordon’s character is a free spirit that refuses to abide by any of society’s conventions or laws, sure, but does that make her happy? Perhaps, but she’s also a danger to herself and others. Bud Cort’s character is a morbid, frustrated, young man crying out for attention. How long before he turns to more drastic, and dangerous, methods to get it?

In the end, it seems that Higgins and director Hal Ashby became so enamored with the outrageous nature of the material that they became blinded to the fact that the film has nothing original to say. We get it, rebel against authority. James Dean and Brando already covered that territory. Granted, they didn’t do it in quite the same eccentric, quirky, and darkly humorous manner, but they did it nonetheless.

Thus, Harold and Maude is a difficult film to recommend. On the one hand, it does look great, with impeccably composed scenes, and it’s got a delicious streak of black humor running through it, but ultimately, you’re better off watching a Wes Anderson film.