If anyplace is open to second chances, it's Austin. Austin-based writer and director Bob Byington is bringing his latest movie back to the capitol city for another screening - not because people were begging for more. No, it's coming back because it never got the proper chance to play the first time.
Harmony and Me played at a film festival screening last October, but the projector skipped, paused, and pixelated, according to a description by the Austinist.
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Harmony and Me
We would all like for our lives to be harmonious—that each individual part would arrange itself in such a way that it is pleasing and complimentary to everything else— but the wish and the reality are most often found to be incongruous. Harmony (Justin Rice, lead singer of Bishop Allen and star of another indie flick, Mutual Appreciation), the eponymous character in Robert Byington's new film Harmony and Me, is a study in that schism, finding his life pitched into discord when he is summarily dismissed by his girlfriend, Jessica (the knockout Kristen Tucker).
The words "Something in your eyes is makin' such a fool of me," appear on a black screen. With a sly wink, the lyrics from the Madonna hit "Borderline" let you know within the first few moments that this story is not going to be a happy one. Harmony (or more often "Harm", a nickname that lends itself more readily to the outcome of Harmony's actions than his actual name) is obviously the referenced fool, as we witness him reliving some of the blissful moments of his broken relationship, a bliss that is cut to the quick by the realization that he is a Loser. This is not some sort of epiphany on his part, but rather a direct quote from Jessica, relayed by a friend of the pair in a brutal—and incredibly hilarious—way.
Thus commences the serial telling of Harmony's broken heart story. And he will tell it to anyone: his friends, his family, his coworkers, an acupuncturist, and even a wall if it will listen. At first it seems clever and sincere: "She broke my heart. She's still at it. She hasn't finished the job yet; she's breaking my heart." But with each additional telling, you feel less impacted and more exasperated. There is something about the brilliantly mopey, defeatist way that Rice plays Harmony that makes you just want to shake him and tell him that everything is going to be alright. This is not the end of the world! There's other fish in the sea, etc. Isn't that what people are supposed to say in these sorts of situations?
Unfortunately for Harmony, none of the people in his life seem interested in consoling him with platitudes. His unfortunate friend Carlos (the wonderful Kevin Corrigan) thinks Jessica is dull, and not worth all of this grieving. His younger brother Wes (Keith Poulson, also of Bishop Allen) couldn't care less. His older brother, Jim (played with delicious prickliness by Byington himself), is also unconcerned and frankly, a total jerk about his brother's situation. His mother just wants him to "find one that can move her arms and legs."
But instead of looking for just another warm body, Harmony decides to take up a hobby, that is, learning how to make his left hand play the piano in concert with his right. It is in these moments with his scrubby piano teacher (Jerm Pollet) that we realize that Harmony is not necessarily searching for peace or for comfort, but instead for a unique way to express the feelings that he wears in the silver heart locket around his neck. By learning how to make the notes in his head translate to action in his hands, he can parlay the forward motion that is needed in his life into the perfect melody and eventually the perfect song. But not before he tells his sad-face story a couple more times.
There is, of course, much more that happens in the film: Harmony works at his lame job doing god-knows-what (we're not even sure he knows), he goes bowling with his boss and a coworker, who happens to be a pedophile, he plays tennis with his family (during which his mother pulls a gut-busting take down on another man at the courts), he hangs out with his bastard of a friend, Mike (the usually charming Alex Karpovsky, whose character name this time around is Mean Man Mike, which is kind of mild considering what an asshole he is), his brother gets married, he sings uncomfortably at the wedding (alongside Bob Schneider, who steals the show), he goes to a funeral. All of this action, while a great vehicle for some searing one-liners and laugh-out-loud worthy situational comedy, is secondary to the journey that Harmony is on, and it is ultimately a trek that only provides enough room for him.
At times riotously funny and others introspectively quiet, Harmony and Me succeeds in its aim, which we believe is to tell the story of someone who is stuck in a moment and mindset that they can't seem to get out of. Much like Byington's last film [RSO]: Registered Sex Offender, the lead can't catch a break and has to continually talk his way through the process of doing something that he doesn't want to do, and doesn't know how to do. In [RSO], the character had to go through the rehabilitation process after being jailed for a crime that he doesn't see as criminal and is forced to face his friends and neighbors, alerting them to the fact that he is supposedly a dangerous threat to the community. While a break-up is more benign than that scenario, it seems almost as difficult, and thanks to a sharp script and the hyper-realistic acting by the cast, you get to feel every needling moment of Harmony's uncomfortable rehabilitation into his world-after-love.
The Austinist is providing a pair of tickets for one lucky winner. Fill out the form on their web page for a chance to win the tickets for the Sunday screening.
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