| Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
| Art Carney | ... | ||
| René Enríquez | ... |
Grocery Clerk
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Herbert Berghof | ... | |
| Michael McCleery | ... | ||
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Avon Long | ... | |
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Rashel Novikoff | ... |
Mrs. Rothman
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| Philip Bruns | ... |
Burt
(as Phil Bruns)
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| Cliff De Young | ... |
Burt Jr.
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| Josh Mostel | ... |
Norman
(as Joshua Mostel)
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Dolly Jonah | ... | |
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Sybil Bowan | ... |
Old Landlady
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Joe Madden | ... |
Panhandler
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Bette Howard | ... |
Morgue Clerk
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Patricia Fay | ... |
Airport Security Woman
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Muriel Beerman | ... |
Taxi Driver
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Harry is a retired teacher in his 70s living in the Upper West Side of New York City where his late wife and he raised his children--where he's lived all his life. When the building he lives in is torn down to make way for a parking garage, Harry and his beloved cat Tonto begin a journey across the United States, visiting his children, seeing a world he never seemed to have the time to see before, making new friends, and saying goodbye to old friends. Written by Gary Dickerson <[email protected]>
Every good fish-out-of-water story has a hook. In this film, it's not excitement or glamour or derring-do (well, no more derring-do than an aging retiree can muster) that moves events along, but the very real strength of human connection based on the frailty of human nature.
Harry is literally carried out of his NY apartment slated for demolition, and must learn to re- define home by going on an odyssey he never would have planned. He begins as an unwilling participant -- but because he has one remaining link to the life he knew (the tail-waving Tonto), he remains able and willing to see what's around the next bend.
Encountering children and grandchildren, bus drivers and prostitutes, old flames and old farts, each with their own agenda, Harry stays true to the notion of not reaching home until he knows he's truly arrived -- and that requires letting go of his need to matter to someone, as well as accepting the importance of his mattering to himself. It is one of the sweetest and most human (non-mythical) journeys you'll encounter on film.