MovieChat Forums > Our Mutual Friend (1999) Discussion > Just who was their 'Mutual Friend'?

Just who was their 'Mutual Friend'?


I've often wondered who the one person would be - perhaps Lizzie, since she knew everyone - upper and lower classes all. Sometimes I also think it is the river, since it affected every one in the story. If it is the river, it would have to be "friend" in quotation marks since it wasn't exactly friendly to several of the shadier characters and, in fact, proved to be their downfall.

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I haven't read the book, but in the movie I remember a scene when the Boffins had come over to Bella's house to ask her if she would like to live with them. They were standing outside and John was on his way inside his rented room. Then the Boffins said, regarding John, that we have a "mutual friend."

Yes, the river definitely affected everyone.

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The mutual friend is supposed to john harmon / rokesmith. Mr Boffin - in the tv series and especially the book, refers to him as our mutual friend and it is him, and his supposed death that brings everything together in a way - his body supposedly being found made eugene meet lizzy, made lizzy send charlie off to school to advoid the allegations against their father about the body (where he meets charlie hexem) and who brings the lawyer lightwood and rogue riderhood in, who gives the boffins the furtune which brings wegg and venus in etc and also all those posh ppl at the dinner party talk about the mystery!

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I watched it again today - when Boffins met John outside of Bella's house, John had not applied for the secretary job yet, so how would Boffins know him and make such a comment?

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Our Mutual Friend, if you have read the book, is john harmon/julius handford/ John Rokesmith. But when the line is written "it looks like we have a mutual friend" it refers to Rokesmith.

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The instances of "mutual friends" within the novel are ancillary to the eponymous hero of the novel, which is money.

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I agree about the money, and the river is such a fitting metaphor for the "flow" of it, or the flushing of it (filthy lucre), as people and sewage are "laundered" or otherwise sea-changed through it's course - the river bottom is the real bottom line, and there are plenty of bottom feeders.

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I've heard that the mutual friend is Mr. Lightwood, the lawyer. Or it could be the river. But I'm pretty sure it's Mr. Lightwood.

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Maybe as I read the contributions it comes to my mind that the mutual friend can be anything you imagine. It just doesn´t have to be necessarily one thing or one person. There are many things which put these people in the novel together. Perhaps it is up to the reader to sort it out...

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The Boffins had worked for Harman's father and knew him as child prior to his leaving England.

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Spoiler

They had met John in the bookshop previously and John had left Mr Boffin his card. They only work out which John he may be much later.

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I always thought it was old man Harmon- It was his death that brought them all together.

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[deleted]

[deleted]

John Harmon

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