Fay Grim

Convoluted, infuriating and implausible, Fay Grim is hard to sit through but Parker Posey is really the only actress who could take this story and run with it. She's at once touching,funny, cunning. The supporting actors commit to it as well.

I wont even try to tell you the plot.. It involves characters from Hartley's Henry Fool and attempts a tale of international espionage.

The film works well if you continue along with it-understanding it is. in a sense, completely ridiculous. It becomes more and more ridiculous as you plod along. (I resisted the temptation to turn off the DVD twice).

Fay Grim requires an adventurous film-goer willing to tackle something that isn't cookie-cutter. In the end, it offers something that defies description.

"Fay Grim" is Hal Hartley's strange, fitfully amusing but ultimately unsuccessful follow-up to his "Henry Fool," an independent feature from 1997 that achieved a certain degree of critical acclaim and financial success upon its release in 1998.

Parker Posey returns as Fay Grim, the wife of the aforementioned Mr. Fool, the literary poseur who disappeared mysteriously at the end of the previous picture taking the multi-volume "confessions" he had written right along with him. Fay is barely keeping the frayed strands of her life together when a couple of CIA agents (the main one played by Jeff Goldblum) arrive on the scene to inform her that not only is her missing husband believed to be dead but that the French government would like nothing better than to get its hands on Fool's inscrutable manuscripts, which, apparently, contain coded information of great value to many of the world's premier powerbrokers. The agents convince Fay to fly to Paris to engage in some serious cloak-and-dagger espionage for the American government. While there, she finds herself quickly embroiled in a complex web of secrecy, lies and international intrigue centered around the man she married but now realizes she never really knew much about.

With its tongue-in-cheek style and preposterously over-complicated storyline, "Fay Grim" is admittedly something of an acquired taste. Some viewers may be intrigued by the hip, postmodernist tone and approach the movie adopts towards its subject matter, while others may find the whole thing insufferably pretentious and annoying. I'm afraid I fit more into the second category, for despite its undeniable cleverness, the movie tends to way overplay its hand, with deliberately arch and self-conscious dialogue - comprised mainly of endless non sequiturs, a rat-a-tat-tat delivery and clipped phrasing - that wears out its welcome very early on. Ditto for the acting, which is intentionally deadpan, one-note and mannered throughout.

At times, the movie's satirical commentary on the insanity of life in the modern world is pointed and acerbic, while, at others, the film is simply too cute by half to really make its case very effectively. "Fay Grim" earns points for at least trying to be different, but you have to be in a very special kind of a mood to truly enjoy it.

When I started watching "Fay Grim", I had no idea that it was a sequel to "Henry Fool". Now, the latter was not a movie that I envisioned as having a sequel. But one has arrived, and it's quite good. I assume that you've seen the original, so I won't explain it. This one starts with Fay (Parker Posey) living with her son whom she had with deadbeat Henry (Thomas Jay Ryan). Simon (James Urbaniak) is still in jail. One day, the son gets expelled for bringing a pornographic toy to school. But this is no ordinary toy. It holds a secret that explains much of what happened in the first movie. And this secret delves deeper into geopolitics than "Syriana".

I must say that I'm quite impressed with what Hal Hartley has accomplished here. Maybe this one doesn't quite reach the original's quality, but it certainly takes a good look at what's going on in the world. And the end leaves open the possibility for another sequel.

Also starring Jeff Goldblum.

"An honest man is always in trouble." This becomes a timberous theme, shadowing Fay throughout the sequel to "Henry Fool." Her character begins as a confused and tentative interviewee, being interrogated by heavy handed, pushy government ghost-types. Men with authority over her, the ability to cause her and her family harm, without disclosing their own motives and limits are leaning hard and fast on Fay. After a couple of conditions are met, she complies meekly. At least, for a while.

"Fay Grim" is as nicely convoluted as a triple loop roller coaster ride - keeps you off-guard and a little dizzy, but in a good way. The patter and phraseology reminded me somewhat of the cadence of a Mamet work. This played very well with Parker Posey's characterization, as well as that of Jeff Goldblum and James Urbaniak. In fact, Urbaniak, as Simon with the owl-glassed eyes, was superbly down-played as Fay's poet genius, stalwart brother. Henry's very brief appearances gave proof of his very big personality and, quite frankly induced me to queue up "Henry Fool" which I have been very reluctant to do.

Undoubtedly, this is a movie I will watch again. It is quirky, somewhat suspenseful, it makes one think. Certainly, as a result of Hartley's stylish acumen and finesse I will benefit from rewatching to catch other of his artistic strokes I will have missed the first time around.

Agents, spies, intrigue and espionage! A woman bumbling through this all to get to her man, who may not even be alive. By the time Fay is done, this butterfly bestirs ripples afar, you know.

The 1997 low-key indie dramedy Henry Fool would seemingly have been a secure choice of movies no one would bother to revisit for a sequel. A rumpled, dissipated drifter (Thomas Jay Ryan) strolls into town. His anarchistic rantings and delusions inspire a nerdy garbage collector (James Urbaniak) to write poems, while Henry half-heartedly tries to boink the guy's sister (Parker Posey). As the poet prospers, Henry declines. Nothing special about any of the characters or the story. A pitch for Harold and Maude's Ghost would have been quoted higher odds of ever making it to a screen.

But Parker Posey ain't the semi-official Queen of the Indies for nothing'. So when writer/director Hal Hartley came up with a new incarnation for his cast, a film was born. Though we catch up with the same characters many years, they're in a completely different sort of dark comedy; this one's laced with espionage! Henry may have been an international spy - and possible double, or even triple, agent - for years before meeting the others. He's either dead or in hiding from agents and authorities of many countries. Everyone wants his rambling, incoherent journal which just may contain coded secrets that could destabilize nations and economies. Posey's Fay is either the wife he left to go on the lam, or his widow, depending on who's telling the truth. Fay's efforts to find Henry and/or the hotly-contested journals include a globe-trotting gauntlet of multinational hit-persons and henchmen at every turn. She never knows who to believe or trust. Nor do we.

While herding these unlikely characters into Jason Bourne/Jack Ryan territory, Hartley's script retains the ironic deadpan humor of their first appearance, steering clear of slapstick in exposing them to physical menaces. His sly lampoon of the paranoia, duplicity and musical-chairs alliances of today's geopolitics starts to crumble towards the end. Even so, fans of the first movie will be pleasantly surprised by the novelty of Hartley's recycling methods. (5/18/07)