Pacionsbo Absolutely Fantastic

InformationRap This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Kien Navarro Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Curt Watching it is like watching the spectacle of a class clown at their best: you laugh at their jokes, instigate their defiance, and "ooooh" when they get in trouble.

MBunge If you think Henry Fool is one of the greatest characters in cinema history, you might (and I emphasize MIGHT) be able to tolerate Fay Grim. If you're unfamiliar with Henry Fool or are unimpressed with Hal Hartley's creation, watching this film would only be a waste of your time. This is an artless art house film where ostentatiously affectless performances parade through a willfully obtuse story. Fay Grim doesn't work on any level, except as a love letter to a movie most people have never seen which gets sidetracked into a limp wristed take on the politics of global terrorism.Fay Grim (Parker Posey) is the wife of Henry Fool (Thomas Jay Ryan). Ten years after her husband vanished, Fay is recruited by CIA agent Fulbright (Jeff Goldblum) to go to Paris and retrieve Henry's notebooks. A great deal of this film is consumed with various and sundry characters talking about those notebooks and then some other characters shoot each other over those notebooks. There are different ridiculous reasons offered up for why everyone is so interested in the writing of Henry Fool, all of which amount to pretentious twaddle. There are also a bunch of plot threads that either never go anywhere or never add up to anything, such as Fay's poet brother getting out of prison, Fay dating her brother's publisher and Henry's involvement with an undefined terrorist. There's also a pornographic Viewmaster and an ending so embarrassingly trite I hope Hartley was being sarcastic with it.There's really not much more to say about this movie. The actors wade through Hartley's self reverential dialog as best they can, giving artificial performances that get about as close to genuine humanity as Jesse James can get to Sandra Bullock nowadays. Hartley's direction is competent, given the slack and lifeless script he wrote, but it's very mannered and feels quite dated.Fay Grim is a movie made by and for people who think a sequel to Henry Fool is a big deal. If you are one of those people, you're welcome to this film. The rest of us have all got better things to do.

tomm-25 Ostensibly a sequel to the 1997 semi-serious black comedy "Henry Fool" (a "10" in my book), the first twenty minutes had me thinking it was just a horrible screen writing, bad-acting and terrible cinematography job. For one thing, the frame in every scene - and I mean EVERY scene - is "Dutch- (Deutsch)-tilted". There isn't a level shot in the entire movie.When I involuntarily started to guffaw, I realized that this was the intent. I restarted the DVD, and viewed it with entirely different eyes, ears and attitude. This film is a laugh-a-minute farce. Jeff Goldblum (not a player in the original Henry Fool cast) is a fabulous deadpan farceur contributing mightily to the general insouciance.Parker Posey displays a delightful and heretofore unknown penchant for comedy - comic timing, facial expression, and body-language - closely akin to Sandra Bullock's.Highly recommended!

zaenkney "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.

Mihnea the Pitbull When I was a teenager, I used to write all kind of absurd stories, "plays" and "novels" (usually very short: one-page-plays, half-a-page novels, etc.), combining in the most illogical way all kind of clichés, in an attempt to satirize and parodiate various subjects: snobbery, sugary romanticism, genre fiction, etc. A few of them were pretty funny - but the most were total failures (no fun, no wits, no sharpness at all).While watching this "Fay Grim", for 3/4 of the screening, I was 100% convinced this was what it was: a failed parody at the worst thrillers. The total lack of reason, the ridiculous dialogs, the scandalous falseness of the actors, the outrageously cacophonous use of the sound-track (including those irritating noises trying to pass for "music", that seemed never to end), the illiterate cinematography, the ungrammatical editing, the fight scenes at the same level with a toddlers' game at bang-bang-I-shot-ya! - and all the other idiocies on screen seemed to be deliberate attempts to sarcasm, only devoid of humor, intelligence and professionalism.Unfortunately, in the last part, I understood how wrong I had been: poor Hartley really took himself seriously! He imagined indeed he was making a movie (and a serious one, by that!).As such, he deserves to be told the truth: Hal, baby, this stuff and movie-making are two VERY DIFFICULT things! It's not a child's play, with a camera and some actors who pitied you too much to tell you how retarded you are, and accepted to let you shoot them out of charity (I still wonder how aware is Goldblum of the self-disrespect level he proved with this masquerade). I would teach you a thing of two about what "cinema" means, but I doubt you are able to follow more than half of the first phrase. As such, please take my word: "Fay Grim" is as much a movie, as a pee puddle in a back alley is the Pacific Ocean. The bad news is that it stinks worse. The good news is that it can be wiped away as easily: just pour a gas canister over all the film reels and light a match. It will make a lot of smoke, but soon it will be over - an the world will be a better place.