Bitter Harvest

Bitter Harvest is a 2001 film set in 1924 Ireland, based on a Chinese short story, and directed by a Serbian, Goran Paskaljević. It's title upon release was the unwieldy How Harry Became a Tree, which sounds like a poem by Shel Silverstein, but the film is more reminiscent of the Richard Harris film The Field, in that at its center is a man so full of hate and testosterone that he ceases to be able to function.

Colm Meaney is Harry, who somehow manages to run a cabbage farm. He has a son who is described as not "being the brightest candle on the Christmas tree" (Cillian Murphy). Harry's other son was killed in the rebellion by the English, which later caused the death of his wife.

Harry has recurring dreams that he has become a tree, and reaches his meaty hands toward the sun like branches. He has also chosen to pick a feud with a local businessman (Adrian Dunbar), who has done him no wrong. But, Harry tells his son, "a man is measured by his enemies."

Dunbar is also a matchmaker, and brings young women, presumably poor and from the country, to town to sell off to bachelors. Harry buys one (Kerry Condon) for Murphy, but the young man is too shy to consummate the marriage. Instead, Dunbar, something of a serial philanderer, takes Condon to bed. This sets in motion the tragic consequences.

Bitter Harvest is an okay film, anchored by Meaney's raging performance. At times he is so angry it's comical, as when he has decided to pay Dunbar in cabbages, he determines that he will pull them from the ground and let them rot. When Dunbar calls off the payment, Meaney realizes he has ruined his own cabbage crop. Later, Dunbar will demand payment for a shot dog, and remove the slates from Meaney's roof, leaving him standing in his house in the rain.

However, the script just isn't deep enough to be anything more than a slight entertainment. The metaphor of the tree is labored, and it's not as profound as it thinks it is. This film gets a thumb sideways from me.