“Will & Harper” Is a Sincere and Emotional Documentary about Friendship and Acceptance – Review
- Colton Gomez
- Jan 8
- 4 min read
Review
By Colton Gomez | 01/08/25 | 9:34 P.M. Mountain Time
Documentary | Rated R | 1 hr 54 min | "Will & Harper" Release Date: January 22, 2024
“Will & Harper” is an excellent story that will resonate with a lot of people. From therapists who’ve evolved their viewpoints, to friends of trans men and women, to trans men and women themselves. It comforts and consoles those who’ve gone through this often terrifying experience of transitioning while encouraging acceptance and support in their friends. It emphasizes that a person is who they are inside and not their body parts.
Actor Will Ferrell receives an email from his “Saturday Night Live” collaborator, Andrew Steele, who tells him she is transitioning to live as Harper Steele. Both supportive and taken by surprise, Will proposes they take a road trip across the country to find out what this means for their friendship. It’s also a chance for Harper to interact with the small town places she loves, to see if she’s still welcome after her transition. The pair travel to dive bars, a racetrack, a basketball game, the Grand Canyon, a fancy restaurant, and more. Harper learns what it means to her to be a woman in a country that might not be ready for her yet. “Will & Harper” is a heartfelt and urgently relevant story.
Ferrell seemed to have a lot of questions on his mind but perhaps didn’t know how to ask them or if they were appropriate to ask. He stutters and changes his phrasing mid-sentence. He didn’t always have good answers to Steele’s questions which helped to show that he has some room to grow. There is no hate between the friends. The good stuff in this documentary is when we get to see the awkward first steps to acknowledging each other’s struggles. I loved watching Ferrell break the ice in some of the more awkward conversations, even satirically asking Steele, “Do you feel like a worse driver as a woman?”
This is a really great idea for a documentary and it’s done so well. It’s a challenge/experiment that helps Steele to gain confidence to navigate her new life. It’s especially difficult because they go to places that generally aren’t known for their open-mindedness. But because she loves these places they make the effort to push boundaries and challenge their bravery.
If this were a regular road trip movie that based on real life, it would not have the same impact. I can already see the tropes that would occur in a movie with this same storyline. It’s much better as a documentary because these are two people who have been involved in that kind of storytelling for a long time but now we see them in the same format but not the same context. We get a real and raw story here and that’s where the impact comes from. It could have been an okay movie, but it is a superb documentary.
If I have one gripe with the film, it’s that it seems to forget that not every trans person has a major celebrity to introduce them to people. I get the sense that if the cameras weren’t with Harper in that small town bar, things might have gone differently. Steele felt surprised at some of the positive reactions she encountered and broke down, feeling a mix of relief and guilt that she underestimated people. But I think director Josh Greenbaum shows only a small range of reactions to Steele living as a trans woman. I can read some faces that say, “If only Will Ferrell wasn’t here with cameras, I’d…” fill in the blank. There’s not only an interpersonal threat of losing friends and family, but there’s a physical threat to the personal safety of one transitioning. I love that Steele was accepted by most people. But I fear that there is a harsher reality for those who attempt to do the same without the protection of a big name celebrity with a camera crew who cushions introductions.
Nevertheless, Steele exhibits a profound vulnerability by not only going to the same places she once felt welcome in, but also by letting the film world see her go on this journey. She opens herself to Ferrell’s questions and lets the world see her as she sees herself. The documentary works as a character study of how she navigated life before transitioning to now living life as a transitioned woman. By seeing the reactions of her friends and family, we come to know her and the impact she’s had on others.
We see a different side of Ferrell in this documentary. We’re used to seeing him as the funny man in sketch comedy or comedy movies. Here, we see him break down in tears; sometimes feeling like he’s failed his friend. They cry together and laugh together. They come to know each other in ways they may not have been prepared for. Ferrell and Steele reintroduce Harper to the world while recontextualizing their friendship. This is a great documentary that uses humor to balance the weight of what it means to be a trans woman in the modern world.
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Review by Colton Gomez
Colton Gomez earned his BA in Film Studies from Weber State University. He owns and operates ColtonGomez.com. Here, he covers new releases in theaters and on streaming. For short versions of his reviews, check out his LetterBoxd
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