Review of Fay Grim (2007) by Ken S — 26 Sep 2014

Fay Grim is Hal Hartley's sequel to Henry Fool from 1997 and it continues the story of Fay Grim who is struggling as a single mother after her husband Henry had to flee the country. Her brother Simon is in prison for aiding Henry in his escape and Fay's son Ned is becoming more like his father which worries her.

So Fay thinks she's finally finished with that point in her life then 2 CIA agents show up wanting to read Henry's journals because they believe they may be treasonous and they need Fay to retrieve the final journals in Paris so they can piece together the mystery of what the journals point to and whether or not Henry is a threat to national security.

So Hal Hartley has crafted a really fun spy comedy of sorts. Like with all Hal Hartley's films like the humor is really subdued. But I think this is one of his funniest movies because he takes this really crazy premise and just rolls with it.

Jeff Goldblum is really awesome in this he plays Agent Fulbright who may know more information then he's letting on but he's also kind of oblivious about what's going on in his operation. This movie is really funny and smart.

But in the last half the movie kind of starts to embrace the spy genre and it kind of starts to sink but it didn't kill my enjoyment. I still think this is a really smart deadpan comedy and it's one of Hal Hartley's best.