Stealing Harvard

Infobox Film
name = Stealing Harvard

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image_size =
caption = Promotional poster
director = Bruce McCulloch
producer = Susan Cavan
writer = Martin Hynes,
Peter Tolan
narrator =
starring = Jason Lee
Tom Green
Leslie Mann
Dennis Farina
Richard Jenkins
John C. McGinley
Tammy Blanchard
and Megan Mullally
music = Christophe Beck
cinematography = Ueli Steiger
editing = Malcolm Campbell
distributor =
released = September 13, 2002
runtime =
country = USA
language = English
budget =
preceded_by =
followed_by =
website = http://www.sonypictures.com/movies/stealingharvard/
amg_id =
imdb_id = 0265808

"Stealing Harvard" is a 2002 crime-comedy, directed by Bruce McCulloch, about a man who resorts to crime to pay for his niece's Harvard tuition.

The film stars Jason Lee, Tom Green, Leslie Mann, Dennis Farina, Richard Jenkins and Megan Mullally. Also, John C. McGinley makes a memorable cameo as a bald, tough detective.

Tom Green was nominated for worst supporting actor for this movie in the 2002 Golden Raspberry Awards.

Cast

Synopsis

Nice guy John Plummer (Jason Lee) is engaged to ditsy Elaine (Leslie Mann), and intends to use his life savings of $30,000 to put a down payment on a house, because he doesn't want to accept money from her wealthy father (Dennis Farina), who is also John's employer and who already considers John unworthy of his daughter. Simultaneously, his niece Noreen (Tammy Blanchard), daughter of John's "trailer-trash" sister, Patty (Megan Mullally), is accepted to Harvard University, but needs an additional $30,000 on top of her grants and scholarships in order to attend. Noreen shows her uncle John a videotape made many years ago, at which time he promised to pay for Noreen's college education when the time came if she were to work hard and be accepted to a university. John now has a moral and financial dilemma -- disappoint his fiancee and prove her father right by showing that he cannot provide for Elaine, or disappoint his niece, sister, and her friends, who all look up to him, and take away his niece's only chance to escape from a life of lower class poverty.

John's best friend from high school days, eccentric loser landscaper Walter 'Duff' Duffy (Tom Green) tells John that one of his rich landscaping clients keeps large amounts of cash in an unlocked safe, and that no one is ever in the home on Sunday nights. Duff convinces John, who is bitterly opposed to the idea, that stealing from the homeowner would be ok, because no one will be hurt and the man's insurance company will reimburse the homeowner, justifying it by saying that insurance companies deserve to be ripped off, because they rip off the public. John reluctantly agrees, and he and Duff set out to steal the cash, but Duff runs off when lights come on in the home, leaving John staring down the barrel of the homeowner, Honorable Emmett Cook (Richard Jenkins)'s gun.

Rather than being shot or turned over to the police, John instead finds himself forced at gunpoint to cross-dress and role-play the part of Cook's late wife as the two men lie in bed and "spoon." Eventually, after taking an incriminating photograph of John, one of many identical photos Cook keeps in an album while explaining to John that he is "not gay, I just miss my wife," Cook releases him. As he is leaving, John's fiancée's father happens to be passing by, and takes note of John's panicked behavior, believing that he has caught John in an affair which will be evidence he can use to persuade his daughter to call off the wedding.

Further capers ensue as John and Duff attempt to rob a liquor store and later attempt to con a drug lord out of $30,000 by concocting a phony story about running an ecstasy ring. Meanwhile, a police detective is on to John and Duff, but never has enough evidence to actually pin any of the crimes on them. Other plot twist involve the wealthy father attempting to break into the gun-toting homeowner's residence in order to get evidence against John, and being forced to "spoon" as well with the man, but leaving with the incriminating photo of John from the album in hand, and a youthful liquor store clerk trying to cover up his own crimes of theft and embezzlement by blaming it on John and Duff.

Eventually, John is forced to confess everything to his fiancée, after her father confronts her with a photograph of John in drag. Not only is the fiancée not upset with John, but she now respects and admires him far more for the lengths he was willing to go to in order to provide for her, spare her feelings and send his niece to Harvard. The fiancée Elaine then confides in John that her wealthy father keeps a great deal of money at his business, and that it would be easy for them to steal it. John, Elaine, and Duff set out to rob the business in the night, resulting in a climatic showdown involving the father, the drug dealer, and the detective. In the meantime, Duff is being pursued by Elaine's father's dog who wants to hump him. Taken into custody by the detective and facing a series of charges, John feels like his goose is cooked, until, in a deus ex machina, the judge in charge of his arraignment turns out to be the gun-toting, Emmett Cook.

Upon their mutual recognition, John writes, in his lawyer's notebook, a message to Cook and flashes it across the court, threatening to expose the judge's fetish -- upon reading the makeshift sign, Cook quickly dismisses all charges against John. Finally, Duff comes through as best he can and gives John his life savings, $1000, which John bets on a longshot horse which wins and which paid 30 to 1. John and Elaine are married, Noreen goes off to college, and, in the final scene, John is left to ponder how loser Duff could possibly accumulate $1000 -- the last scene shows Duff offering to "spoon" with Cook for $1000.

Filming dates

The movie was shot during 15 April 2001 - July 2001

Box office performance

The movie was released on September 13th , 2002 and grossed $13,973,532 at the US Box Office against a budget of 25m US Dollars

External links

* [http://www.sonypictures.com/movies/stealingharvard/ Official Site]
*