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‘Will & Harper’ review: Will Ferrell hits the road with trans friend in warm documentary

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‘Will & Harper’ review: Will Ferrell hits the road with trans friend in warm documentary

Former “SNL” teammates go coast-to-coast in sweet film anchored by friendship.

Adam Graham
 |  Detroit News Film Critic

Will Ferrell takes a ride across America with his best friend in “Will & Harper,” a sweet, kindhearted documentary about truth, discovery and the open road of friendship.

Harper Steele is his co-pilot for the adventure, and she’s on her own path: The former “SNL” writer underwent a gender transition during the COVID-19 pandemic, announcing her intent to Ferrell and a few close friends and family members by email. Harper had many questions herself — “will I still be loved?” and “where do we go from here?” among them — and she knew Ferrell would have his own questions about her transition, so the pair packed up a car and hit the road, traveling from New York to Los Angeles over the course of 16 days with a documentary crew in tow.

There are a few stops along the way, first at the “SNL” studios and for a dinner with familiar faces such as Colin Jost, Tim Meadows, Seth Meyers and Tina Fey. There are a few of these check-ins with former “SNL” stars built into the trip, which mostly feel engineered for the viewing audience at home.

But the heart of the film is the relationship between Will and Harper, which hasn’t changed, but now has a different dynamic to it. They’re clearly comfortable with one another, and Harper lets Will ask everything he wants to ask, and he leans in with a question about her new breasts.

But there are much deeper, much richer conversations about Harper’s self-discovery and her long road to transitioning, and the feelings she’s always felt about her place in the world. The road trip is part of her lifeblood: Throughout her life, one of her favorite things to do has been to travel the country and duck into wayward holes and dive bars in the middle of the country, and she’s wondering if she can still do those same things, in the same way, now that she’s a woman. Would it be the same? Does she face new threats?

Ferrell is both a help and a hindrance in those circumstances. He’s a bit of a skeleton key, in that he can go anywhere in this country and be recognized and receive love and laughter from strangers. He helps Harper out of some social jams, but he also draws the wrong kind of attention when the pair visits a Texas steakhouse and he dons a Sherlock Holmes costume and she becomes an unwitting part of his sideshow.

It becomes a learning moment for the pair, and the trip has plenty of those, as they pull out their camping chairs and crack a few beers in parking lots, along the side of the road and at the beach. And they talk, the way that old friends talk, and they share laughter and jokes and moments of tenderness together during that most classic of American rituals, the road trip.

“Will & Harper” is a tad gimmicky at times — there’s a running bit with Kristen Wiig that has a nice payoff, even if it feels strung along for narrative purposes — but if those gags help bring eyeballs to a story that deserves to be seen by as wide an audience as possible, then so be it. This destination is well worth the journey.

‘Will & Harper’

GRADE: B+

Rated R: for language

Running time: 114 minutes

At the State Theatre in Ann Arbor Friday, on Netflix Sept. 27

agraham@detroitnews.com

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