Will & Harper (2023 | USA | 114 minutes | Josh Greenbaum)
Comedy superstar Will Farrell joins his recently-transitioned friend Harper Steele for an illuminating cross-country road trip of strikingly honest conversations and open-hearted discovery.
As the film opens they’re planning to meet after a pandemic-era drifting. In the years since they last spoke, Steele e-mailed her closest friends to share that her decision to transitioning to fully living her life as a woman. In her “former life”, Steele had famously adored the rough-and-tumble dives, truck stops, and collection of gritty characters that dotted the small towns along the interstate highway system. Her new life comes with more anxiety about how she’ll fit among these places now that she’s embraced her true self. So, after a series of facetimes, the two friends hatch a plan to drive Harper’s classic Jeep Grand Wagoneer from her home in New York to Los Angeles to see how it feels.
Although he’s overwhelmingly supportive, Ferrell also enters the trip with some trepidations about how Steele’s transition will affect their longstanding personal and comedic rapport. They set off in the familiar comfortable embrace of their SNL family (where castmembers like Tina Fey and Tim Meadows gently remind Harper that for some people walking down dark alleys has never been safe) before venturing into the great middle of the country. There, they encounter courtside NBA exposure (including a governor hostile to trans rights), racetracks, dingy roadhouses, and giant stunt stakehouses. Even as they encounter allyship and acceptance, these stops become tinged with a greater sense of unease. To an extent, the spotlight on Harper is diffused by Ferrell’s immense fame but that doesn’t necessarily make her stepping into once-familiar, now-dangerous places easy by any means.
Even in Ferrell’s privileged bubble of celebrity, their interactions across America and the vulnerable conversations behind the dashboard regularly prove revelatory. There are so many moments of sweet humor, candid revelations, small triumphs, and raw emotion. Some of this could come off as entry-level to those deeply immersed in the issues facing the trans community, particularly the increasingly hostile legal landscape surrounding gender-affirming medical care and other fundamental rights.
Still, for many (or even most), an entryway into these issues is absolutely essential and Will Ferrell proves an outstanding if unlikely ambassador. Both titular participants make this journey relatable, consistently funny, deeply felt, and utterly real. Director Josh Greenbaum (of Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar) demonstrates an extreme facility in following these two wherever their antics take the film and weaving the footage into a powerfully entertaining, occasionally tear-jerking, cinematic account of their nineteen days behind the wheel. Among the best of the fest, with a much-deserved standing ovation and few dry eyes in the house following its premiere.
Will & Harper played as an official selection of the Premieres section at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival.
Image courtesy Sundance Institute.