How's the old cliché go—with friends like that, who needs enemies? That's the premise of the French film With a Friend Like Harry (Harry, un ami qui vous veut du bien) . A chance encounter (or is it) with an old forgettable classmate in a restroom leads to an unforgettable and unwelcome intrusion into a family vacation in the country.

Harry (Sergi López) seems nice enough, but that piercing and uncomfortable stare that he gives Michel (Laurent Lucas) during the initial encounter seems a bit odd. Then the subsequent meeting in the parking lot with Michel and his wife Claire (Mathilde Seigner) and changing his plans from driving his girlfriend Plum (Sophie Guillemin) to the Matterhorn to following them into the French countryside two hours out of the way indicates extreme quirkiness. This is sealed when the two couples sit down for drinks and conversation. What would you think if someone had taken the trouble to memorize a silly poem you had written 20 years ago in high school?

Sinister play is now suspected. Harry just isn't normal. How many men do you know who eat raw egg yokes after an orgasm and sit silently in the dark, or offer to solve any financial or other problem instantly? Harry has wealth from a mysterious source; after all, he's driving a Mercedes and buys his hosts a brand new 4-runner. If you think this sounds like a great deal, read about the Trojan War, or better yet . . . re-watch some Alfred Hitchcock films.

Director Dominik Moll is a deft student of the Master of Suspense. In many ways, With a Friend Like Harry feels like a French translation of Hitchcock material. The elements are all there—an isolated house in the country with one light brings back Psycho memories as does the violin score that borrows nearly the same chords that Bernard Herrmann uses in his classic score. To amplify the Psycho connection crazy Harry uses the same voyeuristic type of peephole as Norman Bates, and Moll uses similar lighting and camera angle to capture this shot.

The whole situation of the family vacation being drastically changed by a chance encounter is so reminiscent of a dozen Hitchcock films, with The Man Who Knew Too Much being the closest. Additionally, the unspoken homoerotic attraction that Harry's eyes communicate and his offer to solve Michel's problems suggests another variation of Strangers on a Train. Just like Hitch's finest films, the lines between good and evil become blurred—without giving away too much of the plot, just note that each main character is developed with a mixture of the two.

Yet while Moll borrows freely from Hitchcock, his film isn't a Xerox copy of any one film, so there are plenty of false turns mixed in to take you for a suspenseful ride. That's one lesson this talented director has learned from Hitch—the art or creating suspense by letting us know a little more about Harry than the couple does, and creating situations that allows us to think as Harry might. This causes intense feelings of anxiety for the family, as we anticipate the unfolding events. (If necessary, pinch yourself as a reminder that it's only a movie. But some of us enjoy those thrill rides)

With a Friend Like Harry works because of many other film elements that Hitchcock pioneered as well. For instance, Moll's film is so visual that much of it could play as a silent film. I soon forgot that it was a French film with subtitles. Additionally, the pacing is superb. The director is well aware of wearing out the audience with too much intensity, so he supplies an ample amount of humor to relieve the tension. Michel's parents are especially adept at creating some humorous moments. Just as we wonder why Claire doesn't relish visiting her father-in-law, the retired dentist seats his son uncomfortably in a family dentist chair and he drills painfully into his teeth. Instant sympathy develops for Claire, along with a few laughs for the audience.

Credit for making With a Friend Like Harry work so well must go to the lead characters. Lucas plays Michel very much like an everyman, Jimmy Stewart character—a very likeable, flawed husband, who just wants to satisfy the needs of his whole family and works very hard at doing so. Seigner portrays a very human wife, very protective of her family but will let out sarcastic criticisms of her husband and in-laws. They both engage our sympathies because Moll takes the time to give us little scenes that illuminate their characters and make them “real.”

Like Hitchcock's memorable villains and psychopaths, Harry doesn't reveal his pathological behavior instantly. The most annoying behavior that first comes to our attention is the fact that he becomes the houseguest who just won't leave; we wonder if he'll ever take Plum to the Matterhorn. And why is he so interested in his former classmate—one who doesn't even remember him. Other tidbits creep out to make us wonder about Harry until we understand the horror that he is about to inflict. But before this, there are nice aspects to his character, and Plum seems like a genuinely warm and caring person. The children adore her though we continually worry about the little girls each time that they are left with Harry and Plum.

For many years the French have admired Alfred Hitchcock—for proof all you need do is read François Truffaut's wonderful book of the extensive interview session that he had with the Master. While the relatively inexperienced French director/writer Dominik Moll was born after Hitchcock's Psycho, he definitely understands Hitchcock's film art. As a result Moll pays Hitch a far greater tribute with this film than the horrendous experiment attempted by Gus Van Sant in 1998.