Review of Fay Grim (2007) by Tristan P — 14 May 2008

I agree with an earlier reviewer (Rachel Moss); weird as shit. This is my first Hal Hartley film and I have to say I was totally unprepared for the experience. It is very strange, mainly because of it's many similarities to a conventional independent film while being anything but.

The main visual quirks are the large titles interjected throughout the film, the jump cut montages of photos during action sequences, and the slightly askew camera. Otherwise it looks pretty much like a normal film though.

However, Hartley creates much of his mood through the use of an oddly unsettling and slightly out of place score. It gives the film an atmosphere almost totally at odds with the conventional visual cues.

It took me a while to place the music, but I finally realized it simply strongly reminds one of a silent film score in it's sometimes overbearing presence. The performances and script are of course a major part of the Hartley mystique; both are odd.

The film exists in an odd plane apart from other genres like comedy, espionage picture, mystery, geopolitical thriller, satire, spoof, etc., although it does have elements of all. I'm sure this is a very attractive quality to some (I enjoy it in many films), but here it makes it a bit unsettled and hard to follow.

It's a little too complex, and yet pedantic, for its own good. Hartley should settle down and determine what kind of film he's trying to make. The real reason I got the film was see Parker Posey though.

She is excellent and incredibly beautiful. It's not a knock out performance, but definitely great enough to keep it interesting even if she weren't so ridiculously beautiful. The ending pushed it up to three stars for me, but I certainly think this is an acquired taste and would be far better if one knew roughly what they were getting into when sitting down to watch.

Very interesting picture. I guess I have to see the first picture now.