Cameron Turner

The glowing reviews are spot on, and I agree with all of them. Just to offer an additional perspective that I didn’t see in the reviews I read, I found myself at times studying Will Ferrell to see what he’s like as a real person and not as a character, something we rarely get to do. After all, one might expect an A-list celebrity, and a comedian no less, to show a little narcissism and self-centeredness. Some might say Will did that with the costumes in Texas and Las Vegas. The former, at least to me, came across as a silly surprise for his friend (a comedic writer, mind you) that backfired, and Will owned that genuinely. The Vegas costume struck me as an attempt at anonymity in an environment where no one would blink twice at a costume, so for me, it was a way for the two of them to have a nice night out without distraction. What I otherwise looked for and saw without fail in the more intimate moments when it was just Will and Harper is that Will Ferrell has a lot of emotional intelligence that many of us could learn a lot from. He knows how to be quiet and just listen. He knows how to be curious and to give his friend the stage. He never once interrupts Harper when she’s speaking. He knows that silence isn’t awkward and can be just fine. And none of that came across as anything less than genuine. I love seeing when someone whose characters we love turns out to be the real deal out of character, and this lovely film convinced me that Will Ferrell is. We would all do well to be the types of people and friends Will Ferrell and Harper Steele are.