How Harry Became a Tree
| How Harry Became a Tree | |
|---|---|
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| Directed by | Goran Paskaljević |
| Starring | Colm Meaney Adrian Dunbar |
Production company | Paradox Pictures Limited |
Release date |
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Running time | 99 minutes |
| Countries |
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| Language | English |
How Harry Became a Tree (also known as Come Harry Divenne Un Albero and Mon Cher Ennemi) is a 2001 drama film directed by Goran Paskaljević and starring Colm Meaney, Adrian Dunbar and Cillian Murphy.[1][2] It is based on a Chinese story Lao Dan by Yang Zhengguang and deals allegorically with the Irish and Balkan civil wars.[3]
Plot
[edit]In rural Ireland in 1924, Harry Maloney, believing "a man is measured by his enemies", nurses an unjustified enmity for George O'Flaherty, who owns the local pub and most of the businesses in the area and is the local matchmaker. When Harry's son Gus, upon whom Harry regularly heaps mental and verbal abuse falls for George's maidservant, Eileen, George helps put the two together. George's seduction of Eileen gives Harry the opportunity to create a scandal, despite the effect on his own family.
Cast
[edit]- Colm Meaney as Harry Maloney
- Adrian Dunbar as George
- Cillian Murphy as Gus Maloney
- Kerry Condon as Eileen
- Pat Laffan as Father O'Connor
- Gail Fitzpatrick as Margaret
Reception
[edit]Reviewing the film in Hot Press, Craig Fitzsimons wrote "though flawed, How Harry Became A Tree would probably qualify as the most effective example of homegrown bucolic melodrama since Neil Jordan's The Butcher Boy adaptation".[4]
The New York Times wrote that it was "a comic and improbably loving meditation on hate, absurdist but never abstract, using Ireland in 1924 as a stand-in for the former Yugoslavia."[5]
References
[edit]- ^ "How Harry Became a Tree". British Film Institute Collections Search. Retrieved 15 October 2025.
- ^ Rooney, David (14 September 2001). "How Harry Became a Tree". Variety. Retrieved 27 September 2020.
- ^ "How Harry Became a Tree". Irish Film Institute. Retrieved 2023-11-17.
- ^ Fitzsimons, Craig. "How Harry Became A Tree". Hot Press. Retrieved 2023-11-17.
- ^ Henneberger, Melinda (2001-09-10). "ARTS ABROAD; The Trouble With Harry? He Just Loves to Hate". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2024-05-16.