It stars Brendan Fraser as a Harvard University student who finds himself at the mercy of the demands of a homeless man (Joe Pesci) when he holds his senior thesis paper hostage.

While Monty is working on his senior thesis, which takes a pessimistic view of citizens on public assistance, a power outage ruins his computer’s hard drive.

However, Jeff refuses to let Simon stay in the house’s basement on a particularly cold night in case of his parents’ visiting.

Realizing the seriousness of his illness, Simon writes his obituary, which reveals that he left his wife and child to join the Merchant Marines.

Monty agrees to drive Simon to visit Frank, the son he abandoned, despite the fact that doing so will delay the completion of his thesis.

Simon’s condition deteriorates on the drive back to the house; the roommates stay up all night reading Walt Whitman to him before he dies.

The scene in which Simon Wilder and Professor Pitkannan debate the role of the president in American democracy was filmed in Lincoln Hall at Northwestern Law School.

The website's consensus reads: "While it's admittedly well-meaning, With Honors handles its themes in strictly remedial fashion.

Caryn James of The New York Times wrote: "The well-meaning plot about homelessness turns out to be the insufferable part, but the appealing actors who play the four roommates give the film a casual charm.

"[3] Peter Travers of Rolling Stone praised the cast, saying: "Fraser and Kelly make appealing foils; they deserve to do more than sponge up life lessons from the man they once dismissed as a bum.

"[4] Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film 2.5 stars out of 4, praising the acting, but criticizing the "clichéd" plot.

In the liner notes from their compilation March to Fuzz written by the band, "They sent us a clip from the movie With Honors of some jock running through the snow with EMF's hit "Unbelievable" scoring the action.

[8] The Pretenders' cover of Bob Dylan's "Forever Young" was later included on their album Last of the Independents in addition to Free Willy 2: The Adventure Home as one of the two versions of the same song that was played in the movie, the other being by Robbie Jackson.