Hal Hartley’s 1997 film HENRY FOOL tells the story of Simon Grim (James Urbaniak), a garbage collector in Queens whose burgeoning talent as a poet is spurred on to greatness by Henry (Thomas Jay Ryan), a failed novelist with a shady past. Though the film gave Hartley art-house success, it was an unlikely candidate for sequeldom--let alone one that’s a spy thriller--but, years later, that what he’s given us with FAY GRIM.
Henry has been missing for seven years, and Simon’s sister, Fay (Parker Posey), is a single parent raising her and Henry’s 14-year-old son, Ned (Liam Aiken), in Woodside, Queens. Simon is in prison for helping Henry escape from the law, but Fay is given a chance to spring him when she is approached by CIA agent Fulbright (Jeff Goldblum), who asks her to go Paris to obtain Henry’s "confessions," a series of notebooks he filled with international political secrets. Once in Paris, Fay is preyed upon by operatives other than those she is meant to deal with, and things don’t go as planned. An unwitting pawn in a complex international scheme set in motion by her missing husband, Fay finds herself traveling to Turkey for answers. Fans of Hartley’s work will be pleased with this oddball take on the espionage genre, in which a permanently tilted camera mirrors the loopy proceedings. Though Posey’s Fay is a stereotypical "clueless American abroad" in designer duds, and her adventure seems at first to be a silly game, bodies begin piling up, and the tale gathers real weight. FAY GRIM is a unique addition to Hartley’s singular body of work, and a treat for indie film fans regardless of their familiarity with HENRY FOOL.
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Eight years have passed since the infamous Henry Fool fled the country, abandoning his wife, Fay Grim, and their son, Ned. Played to Hartley-esque perfection by Parker Posey, Fay is falling to pieces. Ned is being expelled from school, and Fay's brother, Simon (James Urbaniak), the reviled garbageman/poet, is serving a 10-year sentence for aiding Henry's escape. Simon now believes that Henry's eight-volume opus, Confession, is not the self-indulgent, literary drivel he supposed but a coded report on the clandestine activities of several spy organizations. Enter CIA agent Fulbright (Jeff Goldblum), who strikes a bargain with Fay that springs Simon from jail and sends her to Paris to retrieve two volumes of Henry's Confession. But what do spies and terrorists want with it anyway?
Hal Hartley's smartest, funniest film in many years, Fay Grim, one is tempted to say, picks up where Henry Fool leaves off. But in one of its many creative flourishes, Grim totally upends the Fool story and returns to the kind of playful intrigues reminiscent of Simple Men. Littered with Hartley's characteristic cadences and signature tone, Fay Grim simply asks, can a neurotic mom from Queens (with help from a friendly stewardess/part-time topless dancer) elude spy agencies and Afghan terrorists before her ex-husband, who isn't dead, is killed over eight volumes of illogical, pedantic gibberish?
Hal Hartley has had a profound and rarely acknowledged impact on American cinema. His films reclaim the wit of classical Hollywood comedy and film noir, while putting forward an American take on Jean-Luc Godard's ironic playfulness with genre. This synthesis still resonates throughout American film comedy; recent hits like Little Miss Sunshine and Thank You for Smoking owe much to his trailblazing efforts.
The film that stood as a culmination of his signature style was Henry Fool, his 1997 masterpiece. But that has now been surpassed. Posited as a sequel, Fay Grim is considerably more expansive and political than its forebear - not to mention funnier.
As the title suggests, the story has shifted to Henry's wife, portrayed again with sparkling humour and sass by the inimitable Parker Posey. Seven years earlier, Henry (a wonderfully snarky Thomas Jay Ryan) killed a vicious neighbour and fled the country, abetted in his escape by Fay's brother, the celebrated poet Simon Grim (James Urbaniak). Fay is left with a porn-obsessed son, a sibling in jail and a vanished spouse.
So far, so grim. But, as the movie begins, Simon has come to realize that Henry's piss-poor literary tome, "Confessions," just might be some sort of political tell-all chronicling the secret atrocities of various governments around the world. Then the CIA shows up, led by super-suave Agent Fulbright (a delicious role for Jeff Goldblum) with another story altogether. Soon Fay is jetting around Europe and getting involved in political and romantic contretemps too complex to précis here.
Hartley's films trade on rhythm and this requires an enormous command of tone by both actors and director. Fay Grim is a perfect example of how a film can be dramatically elevated by a wildly successful collaboration in this area, Posey and Goldblum's scenes being especially electric.
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