Review: Phyllis and Harold (2010)

[Mark R. Leeper]

                        PHYLLIS AND HAROLD
                (a film review by Mark R. Leeper)

     CAPSULE: Cindy Kline is a filmmaker fascinated by
     her parents' dysfunctional marriage.  In a previous
     film, TIL DEATH DO US PART (1998, a 20-minute
     short), she interviewed her parents trying to get
     to the core of what made their relationship so rocky.
     Later following the death of her father she could
     get more from her mother about their problems.  Now
     she can tell a more complete story in PHYLLIS AND
     HAROLD.  Ironically, what she tells us of her parents
     and what we can see are diametrically opposed.
     Cindy's conclusions are directly at odds with the
     evidence on the screen, and the entire story is
     surprisingly compelling for such a modest effort.
     Rating: +1 (-4 to +4) or 6/10

Over the years when she was growing up, Cindy Kline and her sister
Ricky were caught in the battles between her parents.  Outwardly
they seemed at one time an attractive couple.  Harold's profession
as a dentist allowed them to live very comfortably and to travel
extensively throughout the world.  They should have been an ideal
pairing.  But secretly and not so secretly they were in a constant
state of conflict.  Cindy interviews the two of them and tries to
put some meaning onto the discord.  The two seem opposites.  Harold
is quiet and at least in front of the camera is easy going.
Phyllis is talkative and acerbic.  From early in the film a pattern
becomes clear.  Phyllis's descriptions are punctuated with sharp
verbal jabs at Harold.  Harold stoically takes the abuse and gives
none back.

For example, Phyllis will say Harold would send "what he considered
love letters."  Apparently they did not meet her high standards for
what constitutes "love letters."  Through the years she benefitted
 from being married to Harold, but usually escaped from any
responsibilities as part of the relationship.  In the early days
when Harold was struggling financially, Phyllis spent weeks looking
for a job and then quit the job she found after only one day.  She
has children by Harold, but then does not want to raise them
herself and hires a nanny.  For ten years Cindy was closer to the
nanny than she was to Phyllis.

In the interviews Phyllis complains about Harold's supposed bad
behavior and his faults.  Harold says nothing about Phyllis that is
not sympathetic.  He is proud of his accomplishments, his
investments, and how he can provide for his family.  He is a simple
man and something of a romantic, supporting his wife and ignoring
the digs.

The film takes some twists.  Apparently Phyllis had an affair with
a married man with whom she is still in love.  The daughters tell
her she should have followed her love without much consideration to
what it would have done to their family, especially their father.
Little incidents boil up from the past.  Cindy as a young girl sees
a baby and her mother has to tell her that babies do not stay cute
for long and they grow into ugly teenagers.  Phyllis throughout is
domineering and self-obsessed.  Even as Cindy makes the film she
seems unable to see how destructive Phyllis was.  If Harold has a
similar negative side, we see little of it in the film.  He may be
clumsy, but he is a romantic.

The film has the uneven style that might be expected of an
inexperience filmmaker.  We get some makeshift animation that may
be intended to lighten the tone.  It is mostly of the photographic
style that Terry Gilliam would use for the early Monty Python
episodes.  Somehow it seems like it belongs in another, perhaps
lighter, film.  Some of the sound recording is crudely done and a
little hard to understand.  Some of the scenes go on too long
without giving us new information.  The use of home movies intercut
with the scenes of the present are a familiar touch and the home
movies could have been better chosen, but they give a feel for the
time period of the narrative.

Cindy Klein give us a picture of herself as a woman who grew up in
a household that had the assumption that it is the husband's
responsibility to make the wife happy, but not the reverse.  She
seems unaware that she maintains that prejudice throughout the
film, and it may reflect badly on her, but it gives the film its
interest.  I rate PHYLLIS AND HAROLD a +1 on the -4 to +4 scale or
6/10.

Film Credits: <http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1382323/>


					Mark R. Leeper
					mleeper at optonline.net
					Copyright 2010 Mark R. Leeper