{ "id": "epgjpmkc63", "slug": "with-a-friend-like-harry", "title": "With a Friend Like Harry...", "updated": "2026-11-01", "topic_path": [ { "id": "culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture" }, { "id": "culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery", "label": "Crime, thriller, and mystery films (individual works)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery.2000-2004-films", "label": "2000–2004 films", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery.2000-2004-films" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery.2000-2004-films.yr-2000-2002", "label": "Released 2000 to 2002", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery.2000-2004-films.yr-2000-2002" } ], "geo": [ { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery", "label": "Western Europe · 1946 to 2000: Crime, thriller, and mystery films (individual works)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery", "path": [ { "id": "geo.weu", "label": "Western Europe", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946", "label": "Western Europe · 1946 to 2000", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery", "label": "Crime, thriller, and mystery films (individual works)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery" } ] } ], "excerpt": "With a Friend Like Harry... (Harry, un ami qui vous veut du bien) is Dominik Moll's 2000 French psychological thriller starring Sergi López, Laurent Lucas, and Mathilde Seigner; a Cannes 2000 Competition entry that won four Césars.", "snippet": "With a Friend Like Harry... (Harry, un ami qui vous veut du bien) is Dominik Moll's 2000 French psychological thriller starring Sergi López, Laurent Lucas, and Mathilde Seigner; a Cannes 2000 Competition entry that won four Césars.", "node": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery.2000-2004-films.yr-2000-2002", "markdown": "# With a Friend Like Harry...\n\n**With a Friend Like Harry...** (French: *Harry, un ami qui vous veut du bien*, literally \"Harry, a friend who wishes you well\") is a 2000 French psychological thriller directed by Dominik Moll, in which a chance highway meeting between a stressed family man and an old schoolmate he cannot remember turns into a nightmare of intrusive generosity.[1](https://www.unifrance.org/film/16031/harry-un-ami-qui-vous-veut-du-bien) The film competed at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival and won four [César Awards](https://www.edgepedia.org/cesar-awards) in 2001, including best director for Moll and best actor for Sergi López.[2](https://www.festival-cannes.com/f/harry-un-ami-qui-vous-veut-du-bien/) • [3](https://www.unifrance.org/film/16031/harry-un-ami-qui-vous-veut-du-bien)\n\n| Key fact | Detail |\n|---|---|\n| Original title / director | *Harry, un ami qui vous veut du bien*, directed by Dominik Moll, written by Moll and Gilles Marchand[3](https://www.unifrance.org/film/16031/harry-un-ami-qui-vous-veut-du-bien) |\n| Release | Premiered in Competition at Cannes on 11 May 2000; French release 16 August 2000; 117 minutes[2](https://www.festival-cannes.com/f/harry-un-ami-qui-vous-veut-du-bien/) • [3](https://www.unifrance.org/film/16031/harry-un-ami-qui-vous-veut-du-bien) |\n| Principal cast | Laurent Lucas (Michel), Sergi López (Harry), Mathilde Seigner (Claire), Sophie Guillemin (Prune/Plum)[4](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/with_a_friend_like_harry) |\n| Awards | Four Césars 2001 (director, actor, editing, sound); European Film Award for best actor, Sergi López[3](https://www.unifrance.org/film/16031/harry-un-ami-qui-vous-veut-du-bien) |\n| US release | Miramax Films, April 2001; gross $3.8 million in the United States[4](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/with_a_friend_like_harry) • [5](https://moviearchive.phase9.tv/movies/harryhesheretohelp.shtml) |\n| Critical scores | 96% on the Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer (93 reviews); Metascore 75 from 28 reviews[4](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/with_a_friend_like_harry) • [6](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0216800/criticreviews/) |\n| Production | Produced by Michel Saint-Jean for Diaphana Films; budget about $3 million[3](https://www.unifrance.org/film/16031/harry-un-ami-qui-vous-veut-du-bien) |\n\n## Spoilers\n\n### Plot\n\nMichel (Laurent Lucas), his wife Claire (Mathilde Seigner), and their three small daughters drive through a heat wave toward their rundown summer cottage in the countryside, a farmhouse they have been restoring for three years.[2](https://www.festival-cannes.com/f/harry-un-ami-qui-vous-veut-du-bien/) • [7](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/with-a-friend-like-harry-2001) At a highway rest stop, a man introduces himself as Harry (Sergi López), an old high-school classmate. Michel does not remember him, but Harry's memory is perfect: he recalls the girl they both dated and recites, word for word, a poem Michel wrote for the school magazine as a teenager.[7](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/with-a-friend-like-harry-2001)\n\nHarry and his fiancée Prune, called Plum in the English version (Sophie Guillemin), attach themselves to the family. Harry declares himself a problem-solver devoted to Michel's happiness: he urges Michel, who has shelved his adolescent ambition of writing, to take it up again, and when the family's old car fails he buys them a brand new red sports utility vehicle.[8](https://moviearchive.phase9.tv/movies/harryhesheretohelp.shtml) • [9](https://udspace.udel.edu/bitstream/19716/14380/1/udr_127_52.pdf) His solutions then turn lethal. According to the Quebec cinema repertoire's synopsis, he kills Michel's petty parents and his mocking brother, and, offended on Prune's behalf, kills her as well; when he urges Michel to stab his own wife and children, Michel comes back to himself, kills Harry, and throws him into the well (the puisard) on the property.[10](https://repertoire.cinema.mcc.gouv.qc.ca/film/harry-un-ami-qui-vous-veut-du-bien-148616/)\n\n## Production and direction\n\n**A slow route to the screen.** Moll, a German-born filmmaker who studied film in New York and Paris, had flopped with his 1994 debut *Intimacy*, an adaptation of a [Jean-Paul Sartre](https://www.edgepedia.org/jean-paul-sartre) story, and turned to suspense afterward. He spent six years writing *Harry*, working in the meantime as an editor and assistant director, including for Marcel Ophuls.[11](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2001-apr-22-ca-54344-story.html) The screenplay was co-written with Gilles Marchand, a longtime collaborator; Moll said that during writing he tended to hold back to make Harry less radical, while Marchand pushed him to go further.[12](https://www.chaosreign.fr/interview-dominik-moll-lemming/) For the character himself, Moll gave López a single key: Harry is sincere in everything he says or does.[13](https://www.afsi.eu/articles/116287-cesar-du-son-2023-entretien-avec-dominik-moll)\n\nThe crew included cinematographer Matthieu Poirot-Delpech, editor Yannick Kergoat, production designer Michel Barthélémy, and composer David Sinclair Whitaker.[2](https://www.festival-cannes.com/f/harry-un-ami-qui-vous-veut-du-bien/) The film was shot in French on 35 mm in Scope (2.35:1) with Dolby sound.[3](https://www.unifrance.org/film/16031/harry-un-ami-qui-vous-veut-du-bien) • [4](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/with_a_friend_like_harry)\n\n## Reception\n\nThe film opened the [Competition](https://www.edgepedia.org/competition) at Cannes 2000 as a surprise selection; Jean-Michel Frodon wrote in *Le Monde* that it revealed Moll as a stylist who mastered both the humorous vein and an ambitious composition, between Hitchcock and Claude Chabrol.[14](https://julianwhiting.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/harry-un-ami-qui-vous-veut-du-bien-french-guide.pdf) • [15](https://www.letemps.ch/culture/dominik-moll-faux-dur-cinema-francais) It went on to win four Césars at the 2001 ceremony: best director (Moll), best actor (Sergi López), best editing (Yannick Kergoat), and best sound (Gérard Hardy, Gérard Lamps, and François Maurel), and López also won the European Film Award for best actor.[3](https://www.unifrance.org/film/16031/harry-un-ami-qui-vous-veut-du-bien)\n\nEnglish-language critics placed the film in a Hitchcockian lineage. Roger Ebert, longtime film critic of the *Chicago Sun-Times*, noted that Harry is a nickname for Satan and that the film nudges viewers toward asking whether Harry is the devil or simply a pushy man, and observed that the most frightening outcome would be if Harry were exactly as he seems.[7](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/with-a-friend-like-harry-2001) Philip French in *The Guardian* called it the best European movie in a Hitchcockian vein since George Sluizer's *[The Vanishing](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-vanishing-1988-film)*.[16](https://www.theguardian.com/film/movie/84273/harry.he.s.here.to.help) Anthony Lane in *The New Yorker* described it as a smart horror story whose villain's logic, not his homicidal methods, is what makes him daunting.[17](https://www.newyorker.com/goings-on-about-town/movies/with-a-friend-like-harry) Aggregated scores reflected the divide between critics and audiences: 96 percent on the Tomatometer against 79 percent from audiences on the Popcornmeter, and a Metascore of 75.[4](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/with_a_friend_like_harry) • [6](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0216800/criticreviews/)\n\nCommercially, the film cost about $3 million and grossed $15.6 million worldwide, including $3.8 million in the United States, where Miramax released it in April 2001 after a limited Los Angeles and New York opening on 20 April.[4](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/with_a_friend_like_harry) • [5](https://moviearchive.phase9.tv/movies/harryhesheretohelp.shtml)\n\n## Place in Moll's career\n\n*Harry* was Moll's second feature and the work that established him. He followed it with *Lemming* (2005), *The Monk* (2011), *News from Planet Mars* (2016), and the crime films *Only the Animals* (2019) and *The Night of the 12th* (2022), the last of which won six Césars including best film and best director.[18](https://moriareviews.com/horror/with-a-friend-like-harry-2000-harry-hes-here-to-help.htm) • [19](https://www.lemonde.fr/m-le-mag/article/2025/05/13/laurent-cantet-robin-campillo-gilles-marchand-et-dominik-moll-un-pour-tous-tous-pour-un_6605821_4500055.html) The film remains in circulation: as of late 2026 it streams in the United States on the France Channel Amazon Channel and in France on Paramount+, and is available for digital rental on Apple TV, Amazon Video, and Canal VOD.[20](https://www.justwatch.com/us/movie/with-a-friend-like-harry) • [21](https://www.justwatch.com/fr/film/with-a-friend-like-harry)\n\n## References\n\n1. [Harry, un ami qui vous veut du bien, Répertoire des films classés (Quebec)](https://repertoire.cinema.mcc.gouv.qc.ca/film/harry-un-ami-qui-vous-veut-du-bien-148616/)\n2. [HARRY? UN AMI QUI VOUS VEUT DU BIEN, Festival de Cannes](https://www.festival-cannes.com/f/harry-un-ami-qui-vous-veut-du-bien/)\n3. [Harry, un ami qui vous veut du bien, Unifrance](https://www.unifrance.org/film/16031/harry-un-ami-qui-vous-veut-du-bien)\n4. [With a Friend Like Harry..., Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/with_a_friend_like_harry)\n5. [Harry, He's Here To Help, phase9 movie archive](https://moviearchive.phase9.tv/movies/harryhesheretohelp.shtml)\n6. [With a Friend Like Harry... Metacritic reviews, IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0216800/criticreviews/)\n7. [Roger Ebert, With A Friend Like Harry (2001), rogerebert.com](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/with-a-friend-like-harry-2001)\n8. [Harry, He's Here To Help synopsis, phase9](https://moviearchive.phase9.tv/movies/harryhesheretohelp.shtml)\n9. [The Review, University of Delaware, 11 May 2001](https://udspace.udel.edu/bitstream/19716/14380/1/udr_127_52.pdf)\n10. [Répertoire du cinéma québécois: synopsis](https://repertoire.cinema.mcc.gouv.qc.ca/film/harry-un-ami-qui-vous-veut-du-bien-148616/)\n11. [Richard Natale, With Influences Like These..., Los Angeles Times, 22 April 2001](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2001-apr-22-ca-54344-story.html)\n12. [Interview with Dominik Moll, CHAOS](https://www.chaosreign.fr/interview-dominik-moll-lemming/)\n13. [César 2023: entretien avec Dominik Moll, AFSI](https://www.afsi.eu/articles/116287-cesar-du-son-2023-entretien-avec-dominik-moll)\n14. [Harry, un ami qui vous veut du bien, pedagogical guide with press excerpts](https://julianwhiting.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/harry-un-ami-qui-vous-veut-du-bien-french-guide.pdf)\n15. [Dominik Moll, le faux dur du cinéma français, Le Temps](https://www.letemps.ch/culture/dominik-moll-faux-dur-cinema-francais)\n16. [Harry, He's Here To Help, The Guardian](https://www.theguardian.com/film/movie/84273/harry.he.s.here.to.help)\n17. [Anthony Lane, With a Friend Like Harry, The New Yorker, 13 November 2020](https://www.newyorker.com/goings-on-about-town/movies/with-a-friend-like-harry)\n18. [With a Friend Like Harry (2000), Moria review](https://moriareviews.com/horror/with-a-friend-like-harry-2000-harry-hes-here-to-help.htm)\n19. [Laurent Cantet, Robin Campillo, Gilles Marchand et Dominik Moll, Le Monde M le mag, 13 May 2025](https://www.lemonde.fr/m-le-mag/article/2025/05/13/laurent-cantet-robin-campillo-gilles-marchand-et-dominik-moll-un-pour-tous-tous-pour-un_6605821_4500055.html)\n20. [With a Friend Like Harry... streaming, JustWatch (US)](https://www.justwatch.com/us/movie/with-a-friend-like-harry)\n21. [Harry, un ami qui vous veut du bien en streaming, JustWatch (France)](https://www.justwatch.com/fr/film/with-a-friend-like-harry)\n\n---\n*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Crime, thriller, and mystery films (individual works) › 2000–2004 films › Released 2000 to 2002*\n\n*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*\n\n*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*\n\nLicense: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license\n", "same_as": [], "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/with-a-friend-like-harry", "markdown_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/with-a-friend-like-harry.md", "license": { "name": "Edgepedia Community License 1.0", "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license", "summary": "Free with credit, commercial use included. AI training is open to everyone. For other uses, organizations over USD 100M in revenue or 100M monthly users license separately.", "spdx": "LicenseRef-Edgepedia-Community-1.0" }, "credit": "\"With a Friend Like Harry...\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/with-a-friend-like-harry. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "credit_md": "\"[With a Friend Like Harry...](https://www.edgepedia.org/with-a-friend-like-harry)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), [https://www.edgepedia.org/with-a-friend-like-harry](https://www.edgepedia.org/with-a-friend-like-harry). [Edgepedia Community License 1.0](https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license).", "credit_html": "\"With a Friend Like Harry...\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/with-a-friend-like-harry. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "speakable": "With a Friend Like Harry... is Dominik Moll's 2000 French psychological thriller starring Sergi López, Laurent Lucas, and Mathilde Seigner; a Cannes 2000 Competition entry that won four Césars." }