Review of Fay Grim (2007) by Giffy G — 11 Jul 2008

Much to my surprise, Hal Hartley made a sequel to his 1997's masterpiece "Henry Fool". Parker Posey reprises her role of Fay Grim, the former wife of Henry Fool, who when we last saw him, had escaped the authorities and we're told he's pretty much vanished without a trace since then.

Hartley almost does a 180 here with his pet character Henry and the basic concept that was started in the previous movie. Instead of character studies, we're presented with intrigue and espionage...apparently Henry was much more than a sort of idiot-savant bullshitting transient, that there might be much more weight to the tales he's spun detailing his checkered past...which in "Henery Fool" all of his past he transcribed into 8 volumes of notebooks. Goldblum stars as his usual creep of a character: an FBI agent that declares these writings as a threat to national security and now it's up to Fay Grim to be the one to track down these notebooks...it actually a little complex with many different interesting coming into place and the revelation of the fate of Henry.

Definitely NOT what I would've expected as a continuation of the Henry Fool saga, and it surprisingly works! Not quite as good as its predecessor, not as witty but still is sharp (though some of Hartley's gags seemed a little too set-up), and hmmmm, there might even be a 3rd part to the story to make it a trilogy?

Hartley does have a good thing going: some of the best characters he's ever created and definitely "Fay Grim" and "Henry Fool" are his among his best works. Lets see if it's still a running joke or will there really be a final conclusion to Henry's story?