Will & Harper
Netflix | Release Date: September 13, 2024 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
74
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 28 Critic Reviews
Positive:
23
Mixed:
5
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Original-CinThom ErnstSep 24, 2024
Beyond the humor and pathos, Will & Harper is a touching and heartfelt exploration of friendship. Read full review
91
The PlaylistRodrigo PerezJan 27, 2024
It’s a compelling, lovely little journey about friends reconnecting and rediscovering each other in a portrait that’s tender, humorous, considerate, and more than deserving of your attention and care. Read full review
80
SlashfilmBJ ColangeloOct 9, 2024
Will & Harper is a sweet little road trip comedy, even if the "spontaneous" appearances of famous faces constantly pull the film into a "celebrities, they're just like us!" realm of faux-documentary authenticity. Read full review
80
Screen RantBen GibbonsSep 27, 2024
Will & Harper is a beautiful story of friendship and change, with plenty of laughter along the way. Read full review
80
EmpireJohn NugentSep 16, 2024
An affectionate road-trip buddy-movie, featuring an unseen depth to Will Ferrell, this documentary is illuminating, timely, and gently funny. Read full review
80
The IndependentClarisse LoughreySep 13, 2024
Not many friendships are tested because somebody decides to dress up as a literary detective in public. But it’s refreshing, in a way, that Will & Harper doesn’t try so hard to trumpet relatability. It doesn’t need to. Its heart remains true. Read full review
80
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzSep 12, 2024
It is a sweet, gentle, at times beautiful movie that does not gloss over the ugliness Steele, a transgender woman, references. Read full review
80
VarietyPeter DebrugeJan 27, 2024
It can sound like a cliché to say that any given movie is what the world needs now, but “Will & Harper” earns that distinction. Read full review
80
Screen DailyAmber WilkinsonJan 27, 2024
While Will and Harper’s friendship gives the film its strongly beating heart, the casual reactions of strangers often also prove to be moving. Read full review
80
ColliderTaylor GatesJan 27, 2024
If there’s one thing we can take away from Will & Harper, it’s that transitioning and allyship can both save lives. Read full review
80
Rolling StoneDavid FearJan 23, 2024
What Will & Harper is, at its heart, is a portrait of a friendship and how the fundamentals of a deep and lasting bond doesn’t change even when the people within it do. That alone makes it worth the trip. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleKimberley JonesSep 12, 2024
Harper and Will both come off like good eggs, and the tears wept on both sides – about the decades of deep pain Harper felt denying her true identity, and the terrible realization for Will that he was blind to that pain – are liable to goose sincere tears of your own. Read full review
75
Movie NationRoger MooreSep 29, 2024
Will & Harper became a hopeful, upbeat snapshot of a nation struggling with its own transition, just a couple of pals in a collectible Jeep, experiencing the “real” America — diners, dives and Walmarts and the wide array of folks who inhabit it, at least some of whom are starting to “get it.” Read full review
75
RogerEbert.comMatt Zoller SeitzSep 27, 2024
This is not so much a movie about a straight and cisgender-identifying person learning how to accept his old pal in a new package. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeOdie HendersonSep 25, 2024
There’s an optimism here that coexists with humor, joy, sadness, and more than one laugh-out-loud moment. Read full review
75
Washington PostJen YamatoSep 25, 2024
At times a case study in How to Be an Ally, the film is accessible by intention. Yet it remains raw, vulnerable and joyful, even when things get messy, as it charts a road map to empathy and acceptance — the real destination that awaits at the end of their cross-country odyssey. Read full review
75
LarsenOnFilmJosh LarsenSep 20, 2024
Overall, this is genuinely moving and instructive, though I do wish it was a wee bit funnier, considering the onscreen talent and the fact that director Josh Greenbaum guided the sublimely silly Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar. Read full review
75
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottSep 17, 2024
That is the kind of celebrity travelogue we could use more of — because, unlike many of its predecessors, this is a trip worth taking. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperSep 13, 2024
Although this is the antithesis of a fly-on-the-wall chronicle, what with Will Ferrell being WILL FERRELL, it’s still an emotionally honest and deeply moving look at two friends bonding after one of them has found the courage to be her true self. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleG. Allen JohnsonSep 10, 2024
Will & Harper works best when the serious issues that confront trans people are openly discussed, from acceptance to mental health issues and the simple problems of daily living. Read full review
70
New York Magazine (Vulture)Bilge EbiriJan 27, 2024
The film’s most powerful achievement is perhaps also its most basic: the simple sight of two friends talking, openly and gently, about all the things on their minds. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterLovia GyarkyeJan 27, 2024
Will & Harper charms as a portrayal of deep, sustaining and supportive friendship. Read full review
67
IndieWireLauren WissotJan 27, 2024
While Will & Harper has moments both poignant and laugh-out-loud funny (a hot air balloon scene in Albuquerque is genius, and lifted even higher by a cameo from Will Forte), Greenbaum’s filmmaking is often far too reticent, as he tends to play things “straight” and take pains not to offend. Read full review
60
The Observer (UK)Wendy IdeSep 29, 2024
The cushioning effect of Ferrell’s celebrity and, judging by the closing credit list, an extensive and well-funded production team, mean that while this is a likable-enough film, it is an insulated and artificial construction. Read full review
60
The Irish TimesDonald ClarkeSep 26, 2024
Will & Harper, a natural Netflix entertainment, oscillates between sincere openness and painful artifice. Read full review
60
The TelegraphEd PowerSep 12, 2024
Will & Harper has laudable aims but suffers from a baggy, shaggy structure. Read full review
60
Little White LiesJuan BarquinSep 11, 2024
It’s just floating in a no-man’s land, a charming but impersonal film about a deeply personal journey. Read full review
60
The GuardianBenjamin LeeJan 27, 2024
It’s a generous, sensitive study of allyship and what that really means in the day-to-day with Ferrell working out in different, often potentially dangerous, situations how to do the right thing. Read full review
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