The lack of character in Harrer is a problem and produces a film that is OK but doesn't do anything well (Minor spoiler regarding final shot of film)

Rating: Null/10 (16 May 2004)

Fleeing the pressures of his family life, Heinrich Harrer joins an expedition to climb the Himalayas and raise morale in Nazi Germany by claiming it as a victory for Hitler. However, he and the others are captured by the British army during the climb and sent to a POW camp. After many attempts at escape, Heinrich and a group of others manage to escape. With his friend Peter, Heinrich reaches Tibet only to be turned away. They get away from their guides and return to Tibet in disguise and are taken into the Holy City. After some time Heinrich is granted an audience with the young Dalai Lama, beginning a journey of discovery for both of them that continues through peace and occupation by China.
One of many films of the period that sought to raise awareness surrounding Tibet, this film is reasonably effective in that regard despite being deeply flawed in others. In terms of delivering a broad history of Tibet and China this film is reasonably OK and is interesting if simplistic. The focus on the (true) story of Harrer helps gives the film structure but also creates weaknesses of it's own. Focusing on this character makes the film more about him than Tibet itself and he isn't really very interesting (although early events in his story here are). The film fudges over his Nazi beliefs and would have us believe that he is nothing to so with any of it – a stand that many have attacked as simply not true but one that was needed to sell the film to modern audiences (and get Pitt on board!). I have no problem with them leaving this out; no, my problem with Harrer is that he is mostly bland and his tale is played OVER Tibet rather than being used as a gateway into the wider story. It is not uninteresting but it is a little overlong and the story is hard to really buy into emotionally because it is such a flawed mix.
The direction uses the scenery well and also produces some exciting early scenes on the mountain, but the bigger battle sequences failing to really spark into life. In fairness to what the film was trying to do, a big part of the problem is Pitt himself. Early on he tries to play his character a little unpleasant (I assume to make his transformation more obvious) but he only comes across as his usual swaggering, slightly arrogant character. This doesn't sit well with me and I didn't rate his performance very much at all. And I don't care if his pronunciation of 'Himalayas' is correct, it's still hilarious and I was very glad when he stopped saying it! Pitt's failure to make a person of Harrer is a major reason that I wasn't ever engaged in the film and the final shot of him with his son was just a perfect example of how uninvolving his character had been. He is rather hammy, prone to irrational traits in his character and unsuited to the film.
Thewlis is better but given less to do – however his flirting with Tsamchoe is not convincing. Wong is poorly used and his famous face in such a role is a distraction. Wangchuk is good as Kundun and is fun but how true to reality his portrayal is.
Overall this is an OK film but it doesn't do anything particularly well. The stuff about Tibet is told in very broad strokes and will not tell most people anything that they don't already know. The focus on the character and story of Harrer also fails because he is not really an engaging character; part of this is due to a flawed script but a bigger contributory factor is a pretty poor performance from Pitt, who doesn't suit the role one little bit.