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Will and Harper Movie Review

Will and Harper is a 2024 documentary film directed by Josh Greenbaum and starring Will Ferrell and Harper Steele. This is a very endearing doc.

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When Will Ferrell finds out his close friend of 30 years is coming out as a trans woman, the two decide to embark on a cross-country road trip to process this new stage of their relationship. This turned out to be one of the better docs of the year as this film that belongs to the genre, but also very much has the feel of a fictional film, which appealed to me for the most part.

Yes, there is artificiality in this approach for sure. I have to imagine that at least some of their conversations have been carefully planned and simply the camera filming them undoubtedly gave it a less authentic feel. With that being said, this is the issue with most documentaries like this one, so I cannot fault it all that much, especially not when the end result is this charming and enjoyable.

Will Ferrell and Harper Steele have known each other for decades and you can easily sense that level of familiarity, love and respect in every one of their shared scenes. Harper sometimes speaks about the transgender issues in an overly activist manner, but for the most part I appreciated her insight and I found her to be a genuinely likable person.

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As for Will, he is his usual self here – acting like a child and throwing temper tantrums. But he also gets to be mature while helping and supporting a friend in need, which was refreshing to see from him. There is a sort of virtue signaling element to all of this, but for the most part I found him to be genuine.

As for the comedic bits and pieces, some did not work, but some did. The yelling at the dog barking from the air balloon was the funniest bit for sure. Ferrell is ultimately not as annoying in this movie as he can often be in other films, which made this project more universal in appeal.

Will and Harper is very well directed by Josh Greenbaum, who infused the movie with a very professional look, feel and structure. I admired it feeling like a fictional work, but still very much being a documentary. The score tugged at the heartstrings way too much, though it was solid in itself.

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I loved the road trip elements and the casual conversations with other people were a delight, but they came in very short supply. The bulk of the movie is just the two talking and covering the various topics of transitioning mostly in a moving, but light way. The dinner scene where the two connected by having to both create a full look was wonderful and I wished that more scenes were as elaborate and as charming as this one.