Brightlyme i know i wasted 90 mins of my life.

Phonearl Good start, but then it gets ruined

Twilightfa Watch something else. There are very few redeeming qualities to this film.

Ketrivie It isn't all that great, actually. Really cheesy and very predicable of how certain scenes are gonna turn play out. However, I guess that's the charm of it all, because I would consider this one of my guilty pleasures.

fedor8 A mix of comedy and drama that doesn't quite gel right, but it's well-made and interesting enough. On one hand we have the obviously comedic tones/scenes where Condon is facing old geezers, "witnesses", who are awaiting to hear her sex-affair story, and we have that absurd (because comedic(?)) scene in which Fitzpatrick so ridiculously quickly forgives her husband's affair WITH HER OWN NIECE - and which the whole village knows about – and she forgives him just because he bought her a gift.On the other hand, the ending undoubtedly falls into drama, even tragedy, with Fitzpatrick's husband getting killed by a jealous lover, and Meaney being deserted in a tileless-roof house by his son and his wife. The two aspects don't fit all that well, though it's nothing too crass. That annoyingly European tradition/tendency for surrealism is fortunately indulged only in the very end when Meaney actually - apparently - does become a tree. The rest of the movie is "normal", in the quirky Irish-movie sense, though it was directed by a Serb. The film profits from Meaney, but also from the charismatic female cast.

rdhad As an American, it took me a bit to get used to the language of rural Ireland in the 1920's, but this film draws you into a world that seems not at all foreign after a while. Unlike the relentlessly depressing "The Field", this is a drama of real tragedies - the small, silly tragedies that we create and that are created for us- and also, of real hope. The original Irish title of this film "How Harry Became a Tree" is so much more fitting than the US "Bitter Harvest" (what were they thinking?), though fortunately the brilliant allegory of the tree is not lost with the title change. Performances are universally outstanding and poignant, the photography beautiful, the music haunting. See this film and see how the Irish continue to astonish with their mastery of language and vision.

kmk-3 There is much laughter from the audience for this wonderful film, but the laughs gradually become uneasy and scarce as we realize this charmingly presented tale is not a comedy but a little tragedy, after all. The ineffable Colm Meaney (as Harry Maloney) gives the performance of a lifetime as an ignorant but sly peasant farmer who happens to be Irish, but could be any nationality. The story is from a Chinese source; a multinational cast and crew underscore the point. Think Balkans; think Chechyna; think Quebec; think Alabama -- rural places where people have hated others for so long no one knows why. It's a classic tragic tale: Harry entangles his family and neighbors in his web of anger and revenge for imagined slights because he really can't do anything else. The skies and hills are stunningly beautiful, and every detail of the film is pitch-perfect. Go, be charmed and laugh, but be prepared to stop laughing when the sadness of these lives overwhelms you. A fine movie!

jozsefbiro A story capturing my mind: although most of the audience in the cinema were laughing a lot and the two user comments I found in IMDB both claimed it was a funny movie, I found it rather sad. It is about the anger of a man who cannot handle his personal tragedies and decides to challenge the most powerful man in the village with no reason. The events eventually lead to an inevitable tragedy. The striking motif of self-destruction in this movie is similar to the one that exists in the Balkan and beautifully presented in some Kusturica movies, so despite the Irish environment, the director's (Goran Paskaljevic from Serbia) origin is clearly felt.