Harlequin (1980) Directed by Simon Wincer

This is one pretty odd and unusual movie, that I strangely enough really liked.

It's hard to compare this movie to anything else, since it's literally like no other. Not that it's all weird with its style or visuals but it's a very original movie with its story and main concept. It's strange and unusual but it works out well though, so I have to call this movie a successful one.

Thing that the movie does well is that it keeps throwing you off. Every time you believe you have everything figured out, you soon start to realize you were completely wrong about things. There are some nice twists and surprises in this movie, that help to make it a both surprising as well as engaging one. It's a very effective movie with its story and concept, as silly as it perhaps all may sound on paper.

Perhaps the movie works out so well because of its grounded approach. It's a movie that involves magic and it at times expects you to believe that all of it is real, while at others it's giving you a perfectly reasonable explanation to why and how certain things happened. It's a very effective balance between things, that helps to keep the movie mysterious and engaging to watch at all times. You want to keep watching it, in order to find out what the direction the movie will be heading at with its story and what for surprises it's going to throw at you next.

It's also a movie that remains interesting, due to the chemistry between its two male opposing leads, played by Robert Powell and David Hemmings. It provides the movie with a constant underlying tension, due to the friction between the two main leads. I especially liked Robert Powell, in his very charismatic role.

And like so many other early '80's movies, this is also one of those movies that feels and looks far more like a '70's movie really, with its visual approach and way of storytelling. This is a real positive thing to say of course and it's also really a big part of the reason why this movie is such a perfectly watchable one and why I liked it as much as I did.

An unique and most certainly watchable, interesting, movie!

7/10

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