Henry Fool

If you like a movie that is character driven, you'll love Henry Fool which was written and directed by Hal Hartley. This movie abounds with interesting, quirky characters. The leads, Mr. Ryan, the title character, and Mr. Urbaniak, were terrific. The plot, where the teacher/student or leader/follower is reversed during the course of the story is not unique but is presented well. The other characters, Ms. Posey and Mr. Corrigan, undergo significant development as well. I don't want to give away too much but I will say that this movie involves characters that are not politically correct and bathroom humor (literally). The movie is long but you won't notice it as the movie is rich with dialogue (listen carefully), constantly changing scenes, and as already stated well developed chang ing characters. I've deliberately avoided the plot until now because I was afraid I would say too much, but it involves a drif ter writer (and much more) Henry Fool who encourages a plain introverted garbage man, Simon, to write down his thoughts. The other characters Ms. Posey, Simon's sister, his mother, and Mr. Corrigan, thug patriot(?) are interesting as well. My thanks to all involved for a great afternoon's entertainment. Three plus stars.

Hal Hartley is just too smart for most movie-goers. He's got a lot to say--and he actually makes his characters say ALL of it; in tiny, impotent little phrases that never astound so much as when you find yourself understanding something large about them.

And Henry Fool is a fount of these emerging insights: one test is not enough to know the heart of a would-be hero, one giant failure is not enough to know the soul of a would-be romantic, love isn't always as deep as it is strong, poetry comes and goes, art is in the understanding...

Despite dispensing so many ideas, Henry Fool has amazing comic timing, some high drama, a little sex, death, and even a romantic ending. Not enough comedy, drama, sex, death, and romance for a big box-office turnout; but just enough to make the Hartley fans want more.

I rented and watched "Henry Fool" last night and spent much of this evening tracking down reviews of this extraordinary film. I'm surprised that none of them invoked Dickens, or at least John Irving.

There's a constancy in Hartley films: beautiful photography, disciplined design, and (usually) extraordinarily attractive actors who mouth almost excruciatingly gassy dialogue in a deadpan style that seems to serve as ballast. "Henry Fool" is no different. But this film delves so deeply and sympathetically into the Big Issues -- love, obligation, and most of all ART -- that it delivers a wallop that reminds me of how I felt at the end of Irving's "Owen Meany". And I mean that as a high compliment.

"Henry Fool" is imperfect, at moments even ridiculous, but you just might be changed by it. Not bad for a movie.

If Hal Hartley were never to make another film, he could easily go down as having created a genuine American Masterpiece with "Henry Fool." Hartley takes this material and stamps it with heart and soul and distance. It's like staring at a palette of beautiful colors - then stepping back to realize it's a bruise. Henry is never less than this astonishing.

As Henry,Thomas Jay Ryan gives what is easily the best film debut I've seen in many years. None of the wimpy whispery-voiced drivel that passes for acting these days (from even some of our best screen actors) his performance practically pops off of the screen like a fart at a funeral. The rest of the cast - James Urbaniak, Parker Posey, Maria Porter, Kevin Corrigan, et al. - are on the same inspired level, but it's obvious why the film is named after Henry. I cannot wait to see this man in more.

Obviously allegorical, "Henry Fool" fairly teems with its laundry list of symbolism both quaint and profound, easy and impossible. I found my cheeks hurting from the smile stretching across my face for much of the film. Other moments had my eyes welling with tears at the beauty – and pain – these oh, so deceptively simple lives toil through.

This is not, obviously, a film for all audiences, there is something of the fairy tale here and while suspension of disbelief is required, it is also its own reward. Actually the characters, though larger than life, are so evenly and wondrously drawn as to become recognizable to all of us as ourselves or others in our own lives. Here we weigh out the seemingly unfair advantages we perceive "others" has having, the pronouncements of self-worth and desire for acceptance and understanding.

Hartley's dialogue is equal to the visual aspects of his film: almost stagey (in the good sense), but with a direct honesty that many, unfortunately, will find offputting. His cast delivers these perfectly placed pronouncements with all the gravitas demanded of the situation - and sound natural doing so. It's a beautiful film to listen to.

Aside from the brilliant storytelling, "Henry" is also beautiful to look at. Hartley's cameramen lens a Queenscape most unusual – one never quite feels he knows where it's taking place, despite obvious "Queens" clues. Every frame – from Henry's powerfully bizarre arrival to the last triumphant (and gloriously ambiguous) cell is a pleasure, a joy to watch.

At its conclusion all I could say was "this was the best movie I've ever seen." Upon reflection, I realize it probably isn't, but at that moment (and each ensuing viewing) I recapture that same, precise feeling. That's what I want in a movie and Henry delivered.

Welcome to Hal Hartley's world of the disenfranchised. The focus here is on Henry Fool (Thomas Jay Ryan), a passionate individual just released from prison after seven years, and one Simon Grimm (James Urbaniak), a simple garbageman with a seemingly apathetic view of the world in which he lives. Henry rents a room in Simon's house (which is occupied as well by his mother and sister) where he continues to work on his `confession,' the memoir he began in prison, which is actually a treatise on life that he believes will one day shake the world to it's very foundation. Expounding his passions to Simon, Henry urges him to cast off the shackles of his dreary existence and to express himself by writing down what he feels in the journal he gives him. Henry becomes the mentor, awakening something within Simon long dormant and as yet unrealized. Simon begins writing poetry, while at the same time we begin to see another side of Henry, a man unable to heed his own advice and whose quest for the life he seeks is too often derailed by his own indecisiveness and uncontrollable lusts. Ultimately, we realize that Henry and Simon are not so different from one another after all. Hartley's style bears a distinct signature, in that when his characters speak it is more than simply dialogue; it is small philosophies delivered in a mannered cadence that is engrossing and at times mesmerizing. The supporting cast includes Parker Posey (Simon's sister), Maria Porter, and one of the finest character actors spawned by independent film in recent years, Kevin Corrigan. In the final analysis, we realize that there is much more to `Henry Fool' than meets the eye. I rate this one 8/10.