Harper Steele and Will Ferrell in a scene from ‘Will & Harper.’
Credit: Netflix
Stop reading if you’ve ever heard this one; Will Ferrell walks into a room, sits down, and proclaims himself “One of the greatest actors in the world.” Cheerful and upbeat, he starts to romanticize his time at SNL and talks about the writer friend he made that would end up being one of the best kinships of his life.
Then the music drops and Will introduces an email he received from his friend that reads, “Hey Will. Something I need you to know. I’ll be transitioning to live as a woman.”
Enter Harper Steele, the head writer of Saturday Night Live for decades, the scribe behind some of Ferrell’s most memorable lines and one of the greatest comedic minds of our time. Most importantly, Steele is one of Will’s best friends in the world.
Going into this film, I didn’t necessarily know what to expect, and I think that was a saving grace. By that, I mean just because Director Josh Greenbaum placed two funny people in front of us in their rawest forms, this, a comedy documentary, doesn’t make. Instead, while the faces and quips may be familiar, we are given two people who would overthrow the world for one another and suddenly have questions about that reality.
Harper gets to read the rest of that email to us in the beginning, putting the words to her speech, one that she gave not only to Will, but to her friends and family, who have their own set of questions to ask. There is a potent fear placed from then on that travels with the duo most of the rest of the film; Harper is worried that Will might feel differently about her now that she’s finally unveiled her true self to the world, and on the other side, Will is afraid for Harper in this seemingly new existence for her.
And at this point, their journey begins on a notion Will puts forth to Harper; knowing that Harper feels hesitant to live her life the same way she had up until that point, Will proposes a road trip across the United States, a trek both of them have taken countless times, and do all the things Harper loved and still does, in a meaningful effort on Will’s end to show nothing had truly changed in the end.
And off they went, charting all the way from NYC on Day 1, visiting various states and locations until they reach California.
Harper allows Will to ask all the things on his mind. Will does a great job of ribbing his friend, but cautiously, especially when he’s concerned he might be crossing the line. I’ll say that the journey was a relatively safe one, but as Harper points out later on, she was under the protection of his “star power,” exclaiming during a powerful point in the film when the two go and see a Pacers game in Indiana, “I’ve never seen Jack Nicholson or Leonardo DiCaprio with a trans friend at a basketball game.”
That same game was attended by Eric Holcomb, governor of Indiana at the time, and while Will and Harper would find out only after talking with him briefly at the event, he had just signed a transgender medical care ban, SB 480, into the state’s legislature.
A couple of scenes that stick out among the wealth of the many the movie holds: Harper wants to visit a road bar in the middle of Oklahoma, where she unexpectedly finds a confederate flag next to Trump flags. She asks Will to sit outside and allow her to, after setting up the speed-dial between them, interact by herself for a bit. Will is paranoid, pensive, and outwardly fearful as he waits to hear from Harper. On the other side, Harper finds a place at the bar and speaks with the patrons as well as the owners about herself and her recent transition, chopping it up and having a grand old time.
This is a pattern audiences will see develop over the 114 minutes the film stretches to, and it bounces a back and forth rollercoaster viewing experience. Through talking with random strangers, visiting friends and family along the trek and often putting their portable lawn chairs in locations that range from a Walmart Parking lot to sides of the Grand Canyon, we get to see a friendship that is unshakable. No matter what name or vision Harper might take on, Will is just glad to spend time with his friend, and see her doing well.
There is a question about the nature of friendships that is and isn’t answered over the course of the film, and simply put, that answer, at least the way that I see it, is that even when names change as well as appearances, that person is still your person. In the end, that is what Will & Harper are to each other, and it is beautiful to witness.