Discover Top Posts Tagged with #harmony cats

Kim Coates pointing a thumbs up as Graham Braithwaite in Harmony Cats.

Harmony Cats - Dancin' Days Medley

#Harmony Cats #Disco #1978

Harmony Cats (1992)

Spoilers ahead!

Thanks to everyone who nominated a Kim Coates movie (or TV show) to be the subject of this, the KCMC's 20th review. We had a great response with some terrific suggestions, and we'll try to hit all everything you all asked for sooner rather than later in the coming weeks. But there could only be one winner, and special thanks to Passcrow who nominated Harmony Cats (1992).

Fair warning - this is a long review. Kim's in this movie from start to finish and barely misses a scene. So if you want to skip the recap and get straight to the fangirl highlights and tropes, jump down here.

By our reckoning, there are just four movies where Kim plays the lead: Frame Up Blues, Lethal Tender, King of Sorrow, and this. It has something in common with Frame Up Blues, in that Kim plays a musician - but the resemblance ends there, because while FUB's Finch Palmer was a charismatic and likeable protagonist right from the start, Kim's character in Harmony Cats...isn't.

He plays Graham Braithwaite, possibly the most uptight, pedantic, and aggravating - if talented - classical violinist in the history of cinema. He's passionate about his music, but when his symphony orchestra is forced to close, the bottom falls out of his world.

Being unemployed doesn't noticeably improve Graham's temperament - he picks an argument with the neighbourhood rocker, tries and fails to get a job as the pianist at a wine bar, and generally drives his long-suffering girlfriend Jane crazy.

While drowning his sorrows in a local dive (which only serves wine described as 'white' or 'red' - the uncultured swine!) Graham meets an old friend, Reg, who's there to vet a potential new bass player for his band. Said bass player, though, turns out to be a drunk, and Graham reluctantly admits that, yes, he can play the bass guitar...

Come the morning, a somewhat hungover former-symphony-violinist is horrified with the cold reality that he's agreed to go on tour with a podunk country band, the eponymous (Frank Hay and the) Harmony Cats. He takes some convincing even to get out of the door and into the band's motorhome, and things only get worse when he realises that his annoying rocker neighbour Alan is also a member of the band.

They almost come to blows right there, but their good-natured bandmates, including Frank, break it up. Instead, Graham tortures himself with anxiety about playing their first gig without ever having rehearsed.

The first of many gig scenes ensued, in which Graham looks thoroughly uncomfortable donking along on bass to Frank's easy-listening brand of country. The fact that Graham seems to think that his symphony tailsuit and white tie (he does leave off the tailcoat) is suitable attire for a country bass player shows just how far he has to go to in touch with his current reality.

Anyway, after the first gig, Graham meets Debbie, Frank's daughter and the back-up vocalist for the Cats, who warmly takes Graham's boasting about his musicial credentials in her stride. Debbie becomes the major catalyst for Graham's personal development as the movie goes on.

Frustrated by what he sees as the crudeness of the music - and of his bandmates - Graham calls Jane for a whinge. She's less than sympathetic, and tells him to try to make the best of it. Taking Jane's advice, Graham goes to find the rest of the Cats and happens to walk in on them making jokes at his expense. It's the last straw, and he almost checks out completely until Reg convinces him to come back with the promise of some creative input into the band.

He latches onto Debbie's vocal talent and begins to work on writing some songs with her. This doesn't necessarily endear him to the rest of the band, especially when he reverts completely to his fussy perfectionism in getting the Cats to rehearse the new numbers, on their day off! Frank also begins to show some dissatisfaction with the direction Graham is creating for the Cats - and for Deb.

Deb's first performance goes down very well with everyone, and she's fired up, wanting to work on more songs with Graham. Of course we know that 'work on more songs' is a euphemism for 'jump the ever-loving hell out of him', but Graham's too conflicted to play ball.

The following morning, he tries to call Jane, but is intercepted by Jane's bitchy sister Sandra who clearly disapproves of him and does her level best to put Jane off him because "he's never going to change".

Cut to Deb taking Graham shopping, and this is the real transformational moment, as Graham gets himself kitted out in a more appropriate (though equally giggle-worthy) cowboy outfit. This - together with Jane's apparent disinterest - gives him the confidence to get kissy with Deb. It makes him even more conflicted about Jane, but when he calls her, he's still too emotionally incompetent to tell her, and instead says that he misses his violin and asks her to send it to him.

After the next gig - during which Deb attracts the attention of a Nashville record producer - Deb confronts Graham (in his underpants again) about their kiss. Graham confesses that there's someone else, and she rather cruelly hits back that it's not as if she wants to marry him because he's "old". We had to rewind at the point because we thought we'd misheard her. Old? OLD? He looks about twelve, love; you need you eyes tested!

Anyway, they're interrupted by Jane, who's turns up in person (and in lingerie) to surprise Graham with his violin. It descends into a bit of bedroom farce this point, with both women walking out on him, and Graham running after them - still in his boxers.

But women troubles are the least of Graham's problems. His interest in Deb, and her new profile, are sitting very badly with Frank, who's fallen off the wagon over concern for his daughter. The movie takes a bizarre little twist, with Graham coming back to his hotel room to find Frank lying in wait for him, swearily accusing him of screwing around with Deb. The encounter makes Graham realise it's Jane he really wants.

Frank's disgruntlement comes to a head at the Cats' next show - a costumed Halloween gig. Drunk again, and aggravated by the presence of the record producer, Frank falls over on stage before ranting about Deb and then walking out. This is enough to prompt Deb to leave the band and seek her fortune in Nashville. Graham goes to confront Frank about his behaviour, and gets clocked across the back of the head with a guitar for his troubles.

The remnants of the Harmony Cats have to pull together to salvage the gig, and take a random turn into Alan's brand of rock. Curiously, Graham becomes a bit of a rock bass god during this number (we suspect it was perhaps more to Kim's taste that the plinky country stuff he had to suffer through before). It loosens him up more than anything else, and he even gets into a bar fight afterwards.

For the remainder of the tour, Graham's friendship with his bandmates solidifies, he learns to take unexpected changes in his stride, and he mends fence with Jane. When he starts playing his violin with the Cats, starting classical and segueing into country fiddle, it's clear that Graham's transformation from pretentious douche to a decent down-to-earth guy is complete.

It all wraps up neatly by the end. Jane turns up at the Cats' last gig with the news that the symphony is re-forming. Frank and Deb reconcile. And we end with Graham - having finally married Jane - back playing classical violin in his beloved symphony...but he's not the same uptight dick that he was at the start of the movie, because beneath his tailsuit, he's still wearing his cowboy boots!

Fangirl highlights:

He's wearing very little in one scene very early on, if you like that kind of thing. Which we do. (What?)

Graham is almost the romantic lead - though the movie is more about his personal development than a love story - and we love this. It's such a rare thing to see him play a good guy, albeit one who starts out really unlikeable, and actually get the girl in the end. Anyone with more than a passing knowledge of Kim's career knows that both of these things are very rare!

Some of Graham's expressions kill us. How he can go from prissily disapproving one minute to ridiculously cute the next we don't know.

Kim does a pretty decent job of playing (miming) the various instruments Graham has to wrangle during the course of the movie. We like a man who's good with his hands.

Graham's evolution from uptight and unlikeable to relaxed and down-to-earth is both fun to watch and very convincing. It's another of those multi-faceted Kim Coates performances that serve to demonstrate his impressive range.

TTC (Time to Coates): 00:00:15

TTCD (Time to Coates Death): He doesn’t die.

Kim quota rating: ❤❤❤❤❤

On pure screentime, we think this is the Coatesiest movie that ever there was. He's in practically every scene and he doesn't even die! If you want Coates bang for your buck, you can't do much better than Harmony Cats.

Overall rating: ★★★

If you're not a fan of country music, Harmony Cats may not be the movie for you - it is unapologetically full of it. But while it's definitely a little corny and cringey in places, it has a warm-heartedness that's quite endearing. (Don't watch it too much, though. We've had one song from it as a earworm all bloody week.)

KC Tropes

Character tropes

Douchebag: There's just no other word for Graham, at least at the beginning of the movie. Well, there are other words - just not very nice ones.

Geek: Uptight symphony violinist geekery aside, the nerdy specs and awkward body language put him squarely in this category.

Not Evil: Just a bit of a tool. He gets better though; much better!

Death tropes

Wait, What?: He never even looks close to any kind of demise. There are no guns, bombs, knives, naked flames, conveniently placed ropes, heights, hungry vampires, blunt instruments or any of the other common causes of Coates movie deaths at all in Harmony Cats. It's disconcerting, we know.

Sex tropes

Smooth Operator: He gets to work his magic on not one but two ladies.

Loses His Shirt: Only about two scenes in, and we're not complaining!

Kiss Me, Coatesy: With both Jane and Deb. He's such a Casanova!

Gets His Kit Off For The Ladies: Perhaps this is a stretch but he runs around in his boxer shorts often enough that we just can't ignore it...

General tropes

Actual Bodily Harm: Punches a guy out in a bar fight. Then spends the rest of the scene nursing his sore knuckles. Aw!

Badass Longcoat(es): It's not quite so much on the badass side as usual, though.

Canadian Canadians in Canada: British Columbia - though for once it's not pretending to be New York or Chicago.

Fashion Victim: Where do we even start? The vast baggy 90s blouses and trousers that he suffers through at the start? The totally inappropriate white tie and tailsuit he insists on wearing for barndance gigs? The cowboy outfit? The cummerbund? The bolo tie? The paisley underpants? The grandad slippers? It's like the perfect storm of every possible fashion faux pas rolled into one. There is one saving grace, though: he gets himself some rather well-fitting jeans towards the end of the movie. And by well-fitting, they're what your mum might call 'council house jeans' (no ballroom at the top).

House Trained: Graham flounders around the kitchen of the place he shares with Jane, and ends up with a whisk, a couple of eggs, and a confused expression.

Nightclub Hangout: Possibly more of these than in any four other Coates movies put together!

Play It Again, Kim: Violin, bass guitar, piano, synth. He even sings a bit. We wonder if his sexy sax man role in Frame Up Blues contributed to his getting this part as a musician.

Please Not The Face: He gets whanged with a guitar at one point, and takes a pratfall in the bar fight. Poor Coates!

Suited And Booted: As a symphony violinist he wears full-on white tie and tails. Somehow he decides that this outfit, less the tailcoat, is suitable attire for the bass player of a travelling country band. Yeah, he's a bit of a one, that Graham!

Very Fine Hat: He suffers from the curse of the overlarge cowboy hat yet again. There's also the rather snazzy fedora he sports while in costume at Halloween, giving us all kinds of Dick Tracy feels!

What Fucking Swearing: For once Kim averts this. His language is very mild. But just as you were thinking this was the happy sort of movie that you could cheerfully watch with your grandma, Frank gets drunk and starts dropping f-bombs. Tut-tut Frank!

You Look Familiar: Blu Mankuma (Robocop: The Series, Cold Front), Charlene Fernatz (Street Justice).

Gimme Gimme Gimme

Buy Harmony Cats at Amazon.com

Buy Harmony Cats at Amazon.co.uk

#kim coates #harmony cats #reviews #movies #the 1990s #1992

After a good 30 minutes at the beginning and in the middle of fighting my bad, but very free DVD player, I finished Harmony Cats and it was adorable as hell. That is all.

#personal #also that is how i react to country music #can i watch it again?#kim coates #harmony cats