Film Review - Will & Harper (2024)

It’s the journey of a lifetime. Literally.

More than 30 years ago, when they were both working on SNL, comedian Will Ferrell met writer Harper Steele (then known as Andrew Steele). Over the years, their friendship grew, they both found professional success and continued to work together. But there was more to come.

Ferrell received an email from Steele, telling him that she’d decided to officially transition to a woman. It was a whole new stage in their friendship and is the core of Josh Greenbaum’s documentary Will & Harper, one of the big hits at this year’s Sundance and already being seen as an award contender. Harper’s decision prompted the two to embark on a road trip to explore and consider this new stage in their friendship while taking Harper back to locations from her past which she now needed to experience again, but as her real self.

The result is what could turn out to be one of the documentaries of the year, the combination of a comic actor who’s more than at home in front of the camera and a writer who usually confines her humour to paper but, as we see here, is more than a match for Ferrell when it comes to off-the-cuff wit. All of which makes it sound very warm, touching and heartfelt – and it’s all of that. But this is a film that, like Harper herself, doesn’t fall into the trap of ignoring the challenges that go with her decision. The attitudes, the accidental mis-gendering (which she admits she hates “but what can you do?”) and the overt prejudice are all there, and there are times when you genuinely fear for her as she looks it straight in the eye. She’s learnt to live with offensive comments on social media, but face to face is a whole different ball game. And sometimes just being in the spotlight is difficult.

It’s a generous film with the biggest of hearts, but there are wince-making, edge-of-the-seat moments to balance it. Ferrell, inevitably, attracts public attention and, while the honesty of the strangers who don’t recognize him is refreshing, the times when he courts that attention sometimes do more harm than good. And, to his credit, he acknowledges that in a moment of honesty that you don’t necessarily associate with such a big name. He also has the sensitivity to let Harper tell her own story, with all the heartbreak and messiness that goes with coming to terms with your gender identity in later life.

The road trip setting, while one of the most familiar of genres, gives the film a sense of scale, but where the film really scores is in the smaller moments, the scenes between the two friends. Their conversations have the ease that goes with years of friendship but the hesitancy that goes hand in hand with venturing into the unknown and, in different ways, they’re both looking into an open-ended future. And in those moments we see its capacity to inform and educate, something that Ferrell clearly took to his own heart. Life changing decisions for both of them.

For now, their story continues. And you won’t want it to end.