It’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking Americans are greedy, ignorant, and unimaginably cruel. We can be; history has repeatedly borne that out. But it’s such a big country filled with so many people and identities that I feel we sometimes forget that we are more than the sum of our failings.
Josh Greenbaum’s documentary Will & Harper isn’t about the complex personalities that make up our citizenry, but it is the bedrock of the documentary. It’s also a kindhearted portrayal of the agony of being a closeted trans-woman and the ecstasy of finally being able to live your best life. The Will and Harper of the title are Will Ferrell and his SNL alum, comedy partner, and friend, Harper Steele. Together, they take a road trip across the country while also exploring their own friendship in the process.
For Harper, it’s a chance to see her country through fresh eyes: her eyes. Traveling the byways and highways, she and Will take in the working-class aspects of Hollywood, with a reluctant stop in Las Vegas. More than anything, it’s a chance for Harper to step out into the world as herself alongside one of her closest friends.
Greenbaum does a nice job of getting us up to speed before Will and Harper start their road trip. We discover that, as Andrew, Harper loved taking road trips and hitchhiking across the country. Andrew loved dive bars, truck stops, and visiting the rundown, grubby diners left off the Triple-A Travel Guide. Harper still loves doing that, but she doesn’t feel as safe going to those same places as a woman.
Ferrell graciously volunteered to ride along with her and act as a buffer and security for her. Soon it morphed into a road trip documentary with Rosenbaum and Zoe White’s camera acting like a fly on the wall. The result is a feel-good exploration of a friendship and, to a degree, a chance for Harper to examine her life with a dear friend.
Ferrell mugs for the camera, but the times when Rosenbaum captures him dropping his guard make Will & Harper delightfully surprising. Combined with this, as the road trip goes on, Will discovers just how long Harper has existed behind the scenes. Later in the documentary, Harper confesses to Will that when she took the road trips in the past, she was dressed as Harper in the car. Dressed in outfits designed for a quick change in case she needed to get gas, use the restroom, or got pulled over by the cops.
The most fascinating thing about Will & Harper is listening to Harper detail her journey and seeing her open up to her dear, dear friend. Will and Harper are two very different people. Harper isn’t as outgoing as Will is, but they vibe together on the same wavelength. She gets Will, and Will gets her, and you can see how the two made such a great writing team.
To some extent, basic media literacy will have me wondering just how authentic some of these scenes were—scenes such as when Harper goes into a dive bar in Meeker, Oklahoma, by herself while Will waits outside. Beyond people knowing they’re being filmed, there’s also the question of how much they were told before filming started. In other words, were they told this was for a documentary with Will Ferrell or that he would be stopping by?
These are not questions unique to Will & Harper, but the answers could impact the veracity of how Harper was treated. After all, people will always behave better when a celebrity stops by with a film crew. Still, these people weren’t ashamed of the ‘Fuck Biden’ flag hanging in the bar, so I would guess their friendly responses and congratulations to Harper were genuine. Especially the scene at the stock car race where Harper talks to a local man who seems not at all bothered by Harper’s transness.
Compare this to a scene in Texas that Ferrell admits he could have handled better. The two go to a steak house, and while in full Sherlock Holmes regalia, Ferrell takes on one of those local challenges: he has to eat a 72-oz. steak in an hour. Harper sits at the table with him, all eyes focused on him, looking visibly uncomfortable. To their face, the patrons were respectful, but online, they were as bigoted and cruel as you probably imagined.
In a sense, Will & Harper is an attempt to broach a topic that seems fraught in the American psyche. The issue is how we should handle transness. The answer is, as with most things, with love. Harper gives Will carte blanche to ask anything he wants because he knows, “It comes from a place of love.” It’s why when Will makes a boob joke about Harper’s breasts, it’s funny because they know each other.
Transness is not new, and while many stories share similarities, each is tenderly personal. Will seems visibly upset as he listens to Harper detail her suicidal ideation. The realization of how much his friend was in pain, and yet he couldn’t see it. At one point, Harper tells Will why she never owned a gun; she was afraid of giving in to the impulse.
Rosenbaum keeps the visuals simple, preferring to show Will and Haper bantering and having heart-to-hearts in a stripped-down natural environment. Something allows Rosenbaum the chance to catch Ferrel with his guard down as he admits that despite his frequent nudity, he is very modest and rarely feels comfortable. But he does it because, as a comedian and a performer, he can’t not.
These little moments between Will and Harper make Will & Harper the lovely little movie it is. Rosenbaum and White capture the landscape of the American countryside and cityscapes while never losing sight of the real attraction, Will and Harper’s friendship. It’s easy to get lost in a cloud of rage as our country slouches towards authoritarianism. But it’s nice to be reminded that while we’re not perfect, we’re not lost yet.
Images courtesy of Netflix
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