Mrs. Harris (film)
Encyclopedia
Mrs. Harris is a 2005 American drama film
written and directed by Phyllis Nagy
. The teleplay
, based on the book Very Much a Lady by Shana Alexander
, focuses on the tempestuous relationship between Herman Tarnower
, noted cardiologist and author of the New York Times bestseller The Complete Scarsdale Medical Diet, and headmistress Jean Harris
. Produced by HBO Films
, it was screened at the Toronto International Film Festival
in September 2005 before being broadcast by the cable network in February 2006.
The film stars Annette Bening
as Jean Harris, and Ben Kingsley
as Herman Tarnower; Cloris Leachman
also stars as Tarnower's sister, and Chloë Sevigny
plays his secretary and lover. The film also features a cameo
performance by Ellen Burstyn
as one of Tarnower's previous girlfriends; Burstyn played Jean Harris herself in the 1981 made-for-television movie, The People vs. Jean Harris.
home of Herman Tarnower following a five-hour drive from McLean, Virginia
. Her goal is to commit suicide
beside the pond on his estate after confronting her former lover, who spurned her in favor of his considerably younger secretary-receptionist Lynne Tryforos. When she removes a gun from her handbag, Tarnower attempts to take it away from her, and in the struggle he accidentally is shot and collapses. Because the phone isn't working, Jean drives off to seek help from a neighbor, only to return to the house when she sees a police car heading in that direction.
The film then follows divergent paths, using flashback
s and flashforwards to tell the story of the couple's initial meeting, their evolving and eventually faltering relationship, the night of the shooting, and Jean's consequent trial for murder. A divorced mother of two sons, she tends to be complacent in both her personal and professional lives, the ideal target for Herman, a vulgar man with the need to be in total control of everyone and everything. He proposes marriage and presents Jean with a ring she feels is embarrassingly large and overly gaudy for the headmistress of a private girls' school. As time passes, she presses him to set a wedding date, until he finally confesses he has changed his mind about marrying her, primarily because he has no interest in playing the role of father to her sons. Jean attempts to return the ring but he insists she keep it and, instead of allowing her to make a clean break from the relationship, he continues to manipulate her by taking advantage of her need for a dominant presence in her life. By prescribing numerous medications to which she becomes addicted, he forces her to become both physically and emotionally dependent upon him while flaunting his many affairs with other women.
During Jean's trial, a flashback to the night of the shooting shows it in a very different light from the earlier portrayal. An angry Jean willfully and methodically shoots Herman and coldly watches him writhe in pain, but on the witness stand she insists it was an accident. Her staunch refusal to allow attorney Joel Aurnou to portray her former lover in a bad light prevents him from presenting any details that would support a defense of extreme emotional disturbance, and she is found guilty and sentenced to fifteen years to life in the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility in Westchester County.
, who makes a cameo appearance
in Mrs. Harris as Gerda Stedman, one of Tarnower's many lovers. Her performance, which consists of two lines of dialogue totaling 38 words and lasts 14 seconds, was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or Movie. USA Today
reported when asked about her reaction to the nomination by AP Radio
, Burstyn responded, "I thought it was fabulous. My next ambition is to get nominated for seven seconds, and, ultimately, I want to be nominated for a picture in which I don't even appear."
In addition to Burstyn, Brett Butler
, Lee Garlington
, Jessica Tuck
, Lisa Edelstein
, John Rubinstein
, and Larry Drake
also make brief appearances in the film.
called the film "competent rather than inspired" and added, "Phyllis Nagy's film directorial bow is an uneven affair, lacking the panache that elevated ripped-from-headlines pics like Reversal of Fortune
above telepic level . . . [The film] doesn't seem sure just what approach to settle on: Elements of mystery
, social satire
(Nagy does have some bright lines up her sleeve), psychological horror story, black comedy
, and straightforward tragic love story all jostle without complementing each other or achieving a successful kaleidoscope effect. The latter may be Nagy's goal, but she's not yet an accomplished enough filmmaker to pull it off. Despite particularly sharp assists from her designers in nailing the nouveau riche
couture
and decor of the eras covered, the movie's own style alternates between pedestrian and overreaching . . . Nevertheless, tale and execution are both colorful enough to hold attention. Bening . . . hits all the right individual notes of pluck, passion, and tether-snapping, even if the hectic script doesn't let them form a coherent arc. Kingsley easily puts across the kind of masculine appeal that can exist in tandem with empathy-challenged callousness."
, Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or Movie
for Annette Bening, Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or Movie
for Ben Kingsley, and Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or Movie for Cloris Leachman in addition to Ellen Burstyn, but lost in all categories.
The film was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Miniseries or TV Film and the Satellite Award for Best Television Film. Bening was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress - Miniseries or TV Film, the Satellite Award for Best Actress - Miniseries or Television Film, and the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Miniseries or Television Movie. Kinglsey was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Miniseries or TV Film, the Satellite Award for Best Actor - Miniseries or Television Film, and the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Miniseries or Television Movie.
The American Cinema Editors
nominated the film for Best Edited Miniseries or Film for Non-Commercial Television, and the Costume Designers Guild
nominated it for Outstanding Costume Design for Television Movie/Mini-Series.
The Casting Society of America
honored the film for Best Film of the Week Casting.
format on DVD on August 1, 2006. It features audio tracks in English and Spanish and subtitles in English, Spanish, and French. Bonus features include commentary by Annette Benning, Ben Kingsley, and writer/director Phyllis Nagy and Mrs. Harris For the Record: Firsthand Accounts, which includes brief interviews with some of the real-life principals involved in the story, including Jean Harris.
Drama film
A drama film is a film genre that depends mostly on in-depth development of realistic characters dealing with emotional themes. Dramatic themes such as alcoholism, drug addiction, infidelity, moral dilemmas, racial prejudice, religious intolerance, poverty, class divisions, violence against women...
written and directed by Phyllis Nagy
Phyllis Nagy
Phyllis Nagy is a theatre and film director, screenwriter and dramatist.-Theatre career:Nagy moved to London in 1992, where her playwriting career began in earnest at the Royal Court Theatre under the artistic direction of Stephen Daldry for whom she served as the Royal Court's writer-in-residence...
. The teleplay
Screenplay
A screenplay or script is a written work that is made especially for a film or television program. Screenplays can be original works or adaptations from existing pieces of writing. In them, the movement, actions, expression, and dialogues of the characters are also narrated...
, based on the book Very Much a Lady by Shana Alexander
Shana Alexander
Shana Alexander was an American journalist, born Shana Ager in New York City on October 6, 1925. Although she became the first woman staff writer and columnist for Life magazine, she was best known for her participation in the "Point-Counterpoint" debate segments of 60 Minutes with conservative...
, focuses on the tempestuous relationship between Herman Tarnower
Herman Tarnower
Herman Tarnower was a cardiologist and the author of the bestselling diet book The Complete Scarsdale Medical Diet...
, noted cardiologist and author of the New York Times bestseller The Complete Scarsdale Medical Diet, and headmistress Jean Harris
Jean Harris
Jean Harris was the headmistress of The Madeira School for girls in McLean, Virginia who made national news in 1980 as the defendant in a high-profile murder case of her lover Dr...
. Produced by HBO Films
HBO Films
HBO Films is a division of the cable television network HBO that produces feature films and miniseries. While much of HBO Films' output is created directly for the television market, such as the film Witness Protection and the mini-series Band of Brothers, Pacific, Generation Kill and Angels in...
, it was screened at the Toronto International Film Festival
Toronto International Film Festival
The Toronto International Film Festival is a publicly-attended film festival held each September in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. In 2010, 339 films from 59 countries were screened at 32 screens in downtown Toronto venues...
in September 2005 before being broadcast by the cable network in February 2006.
The film stars Annette Bening
Annette Bening
Annette Carol Bening is an American actress. Bening is a four-time Oscar nominee for her roles in The Grifters, American Beauty, Being Julia and The Kids Are All Right, winning Golden Globe Awards for the latter two films...
as Jean Harris, and Ben Kingsley
Ben Kingsley
Sir Ben Kingsley, CBE is a British actor. He has won an Oscar, BAFTA, Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild awards in his career. He is known for starring as Mohandas Gandhi in the film Gandhi in 1982, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor...
as Herman Tarnower; Cloris Leachman
Cloris Leachman
Cloris Leachman is an American actress of stage, film and television. She has won eight Primetime Emmy Awards—more than any other performer—and one Daytime Emmy Award...
also stars as Tarnower's sister, and Chloë Sevigny
Chloë Sevigny
Chloë Stevens Sevigny is an American film actress, fashion designer and former model. Sevigny gained reputation for her eclectic fashion sense and developed a broad career in the fashion industry in the mid 1990s, both for modeling and for her work at New York's Sassy magazine, which labeled her...
plays his secretary and lover. The film also features a cameo
Cameo appearance
A cameo role or cameo appearance is a brief appearance of a known person in a work of the performing arts, such as plays, films, video games and television...
performance by Ellen Burstyn
Ellen Burstyn
Ellen Burstyn is a leading American actress of film, stage, and television. Burstyn's career began in theatre during the late 1950s, and over the next ten years she appeared in several films and television series before joining the Actors Studio in 1967...
as one of Tarnower's previous girlfriends; Burstyn played Jean Harris herself in the 1981 made-for-television movie, The People vs. Jean Harris.
Plot
On a stormy night in March 1980, a distraught Jean Harris arrives at the baronial Purchase, New YorkPurchase, New York
Purchase, New York is a hamlet of the town of Harrison, in Westchester County. Its ZIP code is 10577. Its name is derived from Harrison's purchase, for Harrison could have as much land as he could ride in one day...
home of Herman Tarnower following a five-hour drive from McLean, Virginia
McLean, Virginia
McLean is an unincorporated community and census-designated place in Fairfax County in Northern Virginia. The community had a total population of 48,115 as of the 2010 census....
. Her goal is to commit suicide
Suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...
beside the pond on his estate after confronting her former lover, who spurned her in favor of his considerably younger secretary-receptionist Lynne Tryforos. When she removes a gun from her handbag, Tarnower attempts to take it away from her, and in the struggle he accidentally is shot and collapses. Because the phone isn't working, Jean drives off to seek help from a neighbor, only to return to the house when she sees a police car heading in that direction.
The film then follows divergent paths, using flashback
Flashback (narrative)
Flashback is an interjected scene that takes the narrative back in time from the current point the story has reached. Flashbacks are often used to recount events that happened before the story’s primary sequence of events or to fill in crucial backstory...
s and flashforwards to tell the story of the couple's initial meeting, their evolving and eventually faltering relationship, the night of the shooting, and Jean's consequent trial for murder. A divorced mother of two sons, she tends to be complacent in both her personal and professional lives, the ideal target for Herman, a vulgar man with the need to be in total control of everyone and everything. He proposes marriage and presents Jean with a ring she feels is embarrassingly large and overly gaudy for the headmistress of a private girls' school. As time passes, she presses him to set a wedding date, until he finally confesses he has changed his mind about marrying her, primarily because he has no interest in playing the role of father to her sons. Jean attempts to return the ring but he insists she keep it and, instead of allowing her to make a clean break from the relationship, he continues to manipulate her by taking advantage of her need for a dominant presence in her life. By prescribing numerous medications to which she becomes addicted, he forces her to become both physically and emotionally dependent upon him while flaunting his many affairs with other women.
During Jean's trial, a flashback to the night of the shooting shows it in a very different light from the earlier portrayal. An angry Jean willfully and methodically shoots Herman and coldly watches him writhe in pain, but on the witness stand she insists it was an accident. Her staunch refusal to allow attorney Joel Aurnou to portray her former lover in a bad light prevents him from presenting any details that would support a defense of extreme emotional disturbance, and she is found guilty and sentenced to fifteen years to life in the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility in Westchester County.
Production
This was the second television movie about the Harris murder trial, following The People vs. Jean Harris, which aired in 1981 shortly after the verdict was rendered. In the earlier film, Harris was portrayed by Ellen BurstynEllen Burstyn
Ellen Burstyn is a leading American actress of film, stage, and television. Burstyn's career began in theatre during the late 1950s, and over the next ten years she appeared in several films and television series before joining the Actors Studio in 1967...
, who makes a cameo appearance
Cameo appearance
A cameo role or cameo appearance is a brief appearance of a known person in a work of the performing arts, such as plays, films, video games and television...
in Mrs. Harris as Gerda Stedman, one of Tarnower's many lovers. Her performance, which consists of two lines of dialogue totaling 38 words and lasts 14 seconds, was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or Movie. USA Today
USA Today
USA Today is a national American daily newspaper published by the Gannett Company. It was founded by Al Neuharth. The newspaper vies with The Wall Street Journal for the position of having the widest circulation of any newspaper in the United States, something it previously held since 2003...
reported when asked about her reaction to the nomination by AP Radio
Associated Press
The Associated Press is an American news agency. The AP is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers, radio and television stations in the United States, which both contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staff journalists...
, Burstyn responded, "I thought it was fabulous. My next ambition is to get nominated for seven seconds, and, ultimately, I want to be nominated for a picture in which I don't even appear."
In addition to Burstyn, Brett Butler
Brett Butler (comedian)
Brett Butler is an American actress, writer, and stand-up comedian, best known for playing the title role in the comedy series Grace Under Fire.-Early life:...
, Lee Garlington
Lee Garlington
Ann Leslie "Lee" Garlington is an American actress.Garlington was born in Teaneck, New Jersey. She has guest starred in a number of notable television series, including The West Wing, 7th Heaven, 8 Simple Rules, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Judging Amy, L.A...
, Jessica Tuck
Jessica Tuck
Jessica Ines Tuck is an American actress. She is known for her roles as Megan Gordon Harrison on One Life to Live, Gillian Gray on Judging Amy, and Nan Flanagan on True Blood. She also appeared as Madeline Peterson Woods on Days of our Lives.-Personal life:Tuck was born in New York City and is a...
, Lisa Edelstein
Lisa Edelstein
Lisa Edelstein is an American actress and playwright. She is best known for her role as Dr. Lisa Cuddy on the television drama House.-Early life and education:...
, John Rubinstein
John Rubinstein
John Arthur Rubinstein is an American film, Broadway, and television actor, a composer of film and theatre music, and a director in theatre and television.-Early life:...
, and Larry Drake
Larry Drake
Larry Drake is an American actor.Drake was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the son of Lorraine, a homemaker, and Raymond Drake, a drafting engineer for an oil company. Drake is renowned for his portrayal of developmentally disabled Benny Stulwicz on the television show L.A...
also make brief appearances in the film.
Cast
- Annette BeningAnnette BeningAnnette Carol Bening is an American actress. Bening is a four-time Oscar nominee for her roles in The Grifters, American Beauty, Being Julia and The Kids Are All Right, winning Golden Globe Awards for the latter two films...
as Jean Harris - Ben KingsleyBen KingsleySir Ben Kingsley, CBE is a British actor. He has won an Oscar, BAFTA, Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild awards in his career. He is known for starring as Mohandas Gandhi in the film Gandhi in 1982, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor...
as Herman Tarnower - Cloris LeachmanCloris LeachmanCloris Leachman is an American actress of stage, film and television. She has won eight Primetime Emmy Awards—more than any other performer—and one Daytime Emmy Award...
as Pearl Schwartz - Bill SmitrovichBill Smitrovich-Personal life:Bill Smitrovich was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut, the son of Anna and Stanley William Zmitrowicz, a tool and die maker. Bill is a graduate of the University of Bridgeport and holds an MFA from Smith College . He is married to Shaw Purnell from Pittsburgh, PA...
as Joel Arnou - Chloë SevignyChloë SevignyChloë Stevens Sevigny is an American film actress, fashion designer and former model. Sevigny gained reputation for her eclectic fashion sense and developed a broad career in the fashion industry in the mid 1990s, both for modeling and for her work at New York's Sassy magazine, which labeled her...
as Lynne Tryforos - Frances FisherFrances FisherFrances Fisher is a British actress. She is known for her work on television, in theater and in films, including roles as Strawberry Alice, the madame prostitute in Unforgiven , and Ruth DeWitt Bukater, the mother of Kate Winslet's character in Titanic .- Early life and education :Fisher was born...
as Marge Jacobson - Michael GrossMichael Gross (actor)Michael Gross is an American television, movie, and stage actor who plays both comedic and dramatic roles. His most notable roles are as the father Steven Keaton from Family Ties and the Graboid hunter Burt Gummer from the Tremors franchise.-Early life:Gross was born in Chicago, Illinois, the son...
as Leslie Jacobson - Cristine RoseCristine RoseCristine Sue Rose is an American actress. She has also been credited as Christine Rose. She's best known for her role as Angela Petrelli on the hit NBC science fiction drama Heroes.-Early life:...
as Suzanne - Mary McDonnellMary McDonnellMary Eileen McDonnell is an American film, stage, and television actress. She received an Academy Award nomination for her role as Stands With A Fist in Dances with Wolves, and she is also very well known for her performance as President Laura Roslin in Battlestar Galactica, the President's wife...
as Vivian Schulte - Philip Baker HallPhilip Baker Hall-Early life:Hall was born in Toledo, Ohio, the son of a factory worker father who was from Montgomery, Alabama. He attended the University of Toledo. As a younger man, Hall served in the military, started a family, and became a high school English teacher. In 1961, he decided to become an actor...
as Arthur Schulte - Robert CicchiniRobert CicchiniRobert Cicchini is an American film and television actor.Among Cicchini's film appearances are his roles as Lou Pennino in The Godfather: Part III, Jimmy Ozio in Primary Colors and Mitch Casper in The Watcher....
as Det. Siciliano - Michael Paul ChanMichael Paul ChanMichael Paul Chan is an American television and film actor. Some of his recent television work includes Judge Lionel Ping on Arrested Development, Robbery Homicide Division, Dr. Lee in the Joel Schumacher directed "Batman & Robin," the voice of Jimmy Ho on The PJ's, and Lieutenant Michael Tao on...
as Dr. Louis Roh
Critical reception
Dennis Harvey of VarietyVariety (magazine)
Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...
called the film "competent rather than inspired" and added, "Phyllis Nagy's film directorial bow is an uneven affair, lacking the panache that elevated ripped-from-headlines pics like Reversal of Fortune
Reversal of Fortune
Reversal of Fortune is a 1990 film adapted from the 1985 book Reversal of Fortune: Inside the von Bülow Case, written by law professor Alan Dershowitz...
above telepic level . . . [The film] doesn't seem sure just what approach to settle on: Elements of mystery
Mystery film
Mystery film is a sub-genre of the more general category of crime film and at times the thriller genre. It focuses on the efforts of the detective, private investigator or amateur sleuth to solve the mysterious circumstances of a crime by means of clues, investigation, and clever deduction.The...
, social satire
Satire
Satire is primarily a literary genre or form, although in practice it can also be found in the graphic and performing arts. In satire, vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, and society itself, into improvement...
(Nagy does have some bright lines up her sleeve), psychological horror story, black comedy
Black comedy
A black comedy, or dark comedy, is a comic work that employs black humor or gallows humor. The definition of black humor is problematic; it has been argued that it corresponds to the earlier concept of gallows humor; and that, as humor has been defined since Freud as a comedic act that anesthetizes...
, and straightforward tragic love story all jostle without complementing each other or achieving a successful kaleidoscope effect. The latter may be Nagy's goal, but she's not yet an accomplished enough filmmaker to pull it off. Despite particularly sharp assists from her designers in nailing the nouveau riche
Nouveau riche
The nouveau riche , or new money, comprise those who have acquired considerable wealth within their own generation...
couture
Haute couture
Haute couture refers to the creation of exclusive custom-fitted clothing. Haute couture is made to order for a specific customer, and it is usually made from high-quality, expensive fabric and sewn with extreme attention to detail and finished by the most experienced and capable seamstresses,...
and decor of the eras covered, the movie's own style alternates between pedestrian and overreaching . . . Nevertheless, tale and execution are both colorful enough to hold attention. Bening . . . hits all the right individual notes of pluck, passion, and tether-snapping, even if the hectic script doesn't let them form a coherent arc. Kingsley easily puts across the kind of masculine appeal that can exist in tandem with empathy-challenged callousness."
Awards and nominations
The film was nominated for twelve Emmy Awards, including Outstanding Made for Television MoviePrimetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Made for Television Movie
This is a list of the winners of the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Made for Television Movie, which is awarded since 1992. The category was originally called Outstanding Drama/Comedy Special.-1980s:*1980: The Miracle Worker...
, Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or Movie
Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress - Miniseries or a Movie
This is a list of winners of the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie.From 1973 to 1978, the category was divided into two separate categories .Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, guest performances in regular television series were...
for Annette Bening, Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or Movie
Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor - Miniseries or a Movie
This is a list of winners of the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie.-1950s:*1952: Thomas Mitchell*1953: no award*1954: Robert Cummings – 12 Angry Men*1955: Lloyd Nolan – Caine Mutiny Court Marshal...
for Ben Kingsley, and Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or Movie for Cloris Leachman in addition to Ellen Burstyn, but lost in all categories.
The film was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Miniseries or TV Film and the Satellite Award for Best Television Film. Bening was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress - Miniseries or TV Film, the Satellite Award for Best Actress - Miniseries or Television Film, and the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Miniseries or Television Movie. Kinglsey was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Miniseries or TV Film, the Satellite Award for Best Actor - Miniseries or Television Film, and the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Miniseries or Television Movie.
The American Cinema Editors
American Cinema Editors
Founded in 1950, American Cinema Editors is an honorary society of film editors that are voted in based on the qualities of professional achievements, their education of others, and their dedication to editing itself. The society is not to be confused with an industry union, such as the I.A.T.S.E...
nominated the film for Best Edited Miniseries or Film for Non-Commercial Television, and the Costume Designers Guild
Costume Designers Guild
The Costume Designers Guild , IATSE LOCAL 892 was founded in 1953 by a group of 30 motion picture costume designers. In 1986, the Costume Designers Guild joined the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees and added Local 892 to its name...
nominated it for Outstanding Costume Design for Television Movie/Mini-Series.
The Casting Society of America
Casting Society of America
Founded in Los Angeles, California in 1982, the Casting Society of America is a professional society of about 350 casting directors for film, television, and theatre in Australia, Canada, Italy, the United Kingdom and the United States. The society is not to be confused with an industry union. The...
honored the film for Best Film of the Week Casting.
DVD release
HBO Home video released the film in anamorphic widescreenAnamorphic widescreen
Anamorphic widescreen, when applied to DVD manufacture, is a video process that horizontally squeezes a widescreen image so that it can be stored in a standard 4:3 aspect ratio DVD image frame. Compatible playback equipment can then re-expand the horizontal dimension to show the original widescreen...
format on DVD on August 1, 2006. It features audio tracks in English and Spanish and subtitles in English, Spanish, and French. Bonus features include commentary by Annette Benning, Ben Kingsley, and writer/director Phyllis Nagy and Mrs. Harris For the Record: Firsthand Accounts, which includes brief interviews with some of the real-life principals involved in the story, including Jean Harris.