With Honors (film)

With Honors
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Alek Keshishian
Produced by	Amy Robinson Paula Weinstein
Written by	William Mastrosimone
Starring	Joe Pesci Brendan Fraser Moira Kelly Patrick Dempsey Josh Hamilton Gore Vidal
Music by	Patrick Leonard
Cinematography	Sven Nykvist
Edited by	Michael R. Miller
Distributed by	Warner Bros.
Release dates	April 29, 1994
Running time	103 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$12 million
Box office	$20,016,254

With Honors is a 1994 comedy-drama film starring Joe Pesci and Brendan Fraser. The film was directed by Alek Keshishian, who has more famously directed music videos for Madonna and Bobby Brown.

Plot

Montgomery "Monty" Kessler, an honors student in the Government program at Harvard University, rooms with art student Courtney Blumenthal, radio DJ and trust fund child Everett Calloway, and neurotic pre-med student Jeff Hawkes, and is the pet project of Professor Pitkannan, a Nobel Laureate and staunch statist liberal.

Late one night, while working on his thesis, his computer suffers a hard drive failure and all his data is lost. Paranoid about something happening to his sole printed copy, he leaves to make copies. En route, Monty breaks his ankle and drops his thesis down a steam vent and into the boiler room of Widener Library.

When Monty sneaks down into the boiler room to retrieve his paper, he sees a disheveled man reading it, then burning the thesis page by page. Shouting for him to stop, he is then attacked by the startled man. Asking only for his thesis back, the homeless man demands compensation for not burning it. After returning to his house looking for advice and help from his roommates, he calls the university police on the man. They arrest him and search his belongings, but the thesis is not there.

Following the man to his court appearance, his name is revealed to be Simon B. Wilder. After convincing the judge to dismiss the charges against him with impressive legal arguments, he is then held on contempt. Monty pays his fine so that he can get his thesis back. Following him outside, he confronts Simon about the paper. Although Simon blames Monty for getting him kicked out of the library, the two of them work out a deal for the thesis where Simon will give one page for each service Monty provides. Simon then takes up residence in Everett's broken-down van in the backyard of Monty's house. Confronted by his roommates, Monty assures them he will get Simon out as soon as possible.

Simon tries his best to teach Monty humility and humanity. Monty eventually warms up to Simon and the two become close friends. Monty tells Simon about how his father left him and his mother when he was five, having only sporadic contact with him until his death. Simon responds by showing him his collection of "memories," a bag of stones. Each stone reminds him of a specific memory like his "last good night of sleep" and a woman who was "the one".

With time, some of the roommates learn to appreciate Simon's presence. Courtney appreciates the new, gentler Monty and Everett makes a deal with Simon to fix the van in exchange for wine. Jeff, however, is annoyed by having to pay for extra food and fears the possible reactions of his visiting parents. On a particularly cold night, Jeff rejects Monty's request for Simon to sleep in the cellar, threatening to move out with his share of the rent. Monty lies to Simon, who also asks to sleep in the cellar, but Simon sees through his deception and leaves in the middle of the night.

After Jeff, Courtney, and Everett leave for Christmas break, Simon sends a homeless friend to the house with instructions to get a meal and deliver the rest of the thesis, along with a philosophical message. Delivering both, the friend tells Monty that Simon doesn't want to see him, but gives Monty his location. He finds Simon in the street, wheezing and coughing and takes him home. He puts Simon up in the attic, their former roommate's old room, and tells him that he can stay there as long as he likes with no deal. Simon then tells him that he has asbestosis from his days building and sailing ships for the Merchant Marines. Touched by Monty's courtesy, Simon agrees to accept government benefits to pay his way in the house. Recuperating over the break, Simon prepares a New Year's meal for the two of them, and is shocked to discover Monty has thrown out his old thesis and is writing a new one.

As the roommates return home from break, Monty introduces Simon as their new housemate, but Jeff is reluctant to share the house with Simon and threatens to leave again. Eventually, Simon reconciles with Jeff. While writing his own obituary, Simon reveals to Monty that he left his own wife and son when he joined the Merchant Marines. Monty is angry, but forgives him and brings Simon as his "date" to the biggest party of the year on campus. As the two watch Courtney dance with her on-again, off-again boyfriend, Simon recognizes that Monty loves her and gives Monty a poetic pep talk to not let her be a regret. Taking his friend's advice, Monty pursues Courtney and makes his true feelings known with a spontaneous kiss, which Courtney returns.

Late that night, Monty and Courtney wake up to find Simon collapsed in the hallway and struggling to breathe. Monty then acquiesces to take Simon to see his long-lost son, Frank, even though it will mean missing his thesis deadline and thus losing his chance to graduate with honors. The entire household sets off on a road trip. When they arrive, Monty convinces Frank to meet with Simon. The two talk for a minute, with Frank berating Simon for leaving and telling him he wants nothing to do with him. After his daughter (Simon's granddaughter) approaches, Frank tells her that Simon is nobody and leaves. Simon breaks down, grabs a stone for a "memory," and the roommates head back home.

On the way, Simon has another asbestosis attack and leaves the van, intending to die alone in a field, recalling a story he once told about a dog of his who had done the same. Monty convinces Simon that he doesn't have to die alone, and they all return home. As Simon lies in bed, the roommates take turns reading to him from Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass. As Monty finishes his passage, Simon peacefully passes away. The four friends bury Simon in a cemetery, reading Simon's final obituary. He highlights each roommate's personality and especially congratulates Monty on his own personal honor. Monty breaks down and the friends embrace.

Monty then goes to meet with Professor Pitkannan. While the professor disagrees with Monty's thesis and new approach to government, he appreciates his beliefs and effort. He regrets that because Monty turned his paper in late, he could not graduate summa cum laude. At the graduation ceremony, the friends sit together and embrace as they are celebrated as the Class of 1994. They walk out, with Monty grabbing a stone for his own "memory".

Cast

• Joe Pesci as Simon B. Wilder
• Brendan Fraser as Montgomery "Monty" Kessler
• Moira Kelly as Courtney Blumenthal
• Patrick Dempsey as Everett Calloway
• Josh Hamilton as Jeffrey Hawkes
• Gore Vidal as Professor Pitkannan

Production

The film was shot at various locations in Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, and Massachusetts, including the Harvard University campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The exterior of Winthrop House appears, but the interiors pictured are not that of actual Harvard houses, and the last scene of the movie was shot at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The buildings and surroundings were dressed up to look as if it were Harvard and many of the people in the final scene are Illinois students. The graduation scene was shot while the local climate in Illinois had not allowed for the trees to bloom leaves and so artificial branches and leaves were stapled on. All of the outdoor shots of Harvard's Widener Library had the University of Minnesota's Northrop Auditorium in that role. The scene in which Simon Wilder and Professor Pitkannan debate the role of the president in American democracy was filmed in Lincoln Hall at Northwestern Law School.

Release

The movie received predominantly negative reviews from critics. Review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes notes only 17% of reviewers gave With Honors a positive review.^[1][2][3][4] Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film 2.5 stars out of 4, praising the acting, but criticizing the "cliched" plot ^[5]

According to Box Office Mojo, the film grossed about $20 million in the U.S. Despite this modest figure, it did manage to be the #1 at the U.S. weekend box office between May 6–8.^[6]

Soundtrack

With Honors (Music from the Motion Picture)
Soundtrack album by Various Artists
Released	March 22, 1994
Genre	Pop
Label	Maverick, Warner Bros.
Producer	Madonna, Patrick Leonard, Various

The soundtrack was released on March 22, 1994 by Maverick Records. It contains the U.S. No.2 hit single and theme song "I'll Remember" by pop singer Madonna. She received nominations from the Golden Globes, Grammys, and MTV Movie Awards.

1. "Thank You" – Duran Duran
2. "I'll Remember (Theme from With Honors)" – Madonna
3. "She Sells Sanctuary" – The Cult
4. "It's Not Unusual" – Belly
5. "Cover Me" – Candlebox
6. "Your Ghost" – Kristin Hersh/Michael Stipe
7. "Forever Young" – The Pretenders
8. "Fuzzy" – Grant Lee Buffalo
9. "Run Shithead Run" – Mudhoney
10. "Tribe" – Babble
11. "Blue Skies" – Lyle Lovett
12. "On the Wrong Side" – Lindsey Buckingham

References

External links

• With Honors at the Internet Movie Database
• With Honors at Box Office Mojo
• With Honors at Rotten Tomatoes