Fay Grim

Hal Hartley returns with more entertaining eccentricity and a political message. Fay Grim, a spy-farce, proves a more successful genre-mix than his Amateur noir-farce with its porn-writing nun, and is more reminiscent of the style of Trust, Simple Men, and, of course, his 1997 film, Henry Fool, all films in a slightly absurdist style with idiosyncratic dialogue that focused on relationships and the ironies of life.

While few expect a sequel from an ‘auteur’, Henry Fool was fertile ground for a continuation. In the beginning, the eponymous, anarchistic Henry drifts into town, inspires a poet garbage collector Simon (James Urbaniak), and lackadaisically falls for Simon’s sister Fay (Parker Posey). The film marked Hartley’s increasing interest in open criticism of the manipulation of information by the media and politicians, a development which has also marked a decreasing popularity with critics and a division between his fans. His 2005 film, No Such Thing and 2001’s sci-fi effort, The Girl From Monday, never even made it to our shores (fatal shores for many small, subversive films, it seems).

Given these new preoccupations, it’s not surprising that Fay Grim outs Henry as a possible international agent. Double agent? Triple agent? Fay embarks on a bizarrely parodic adventure, in search of Henry’s elusive notebooks that are set to blow the lid off, well, we’re not quite sure what, but something. Hartley’s characteristic emphatic dialogue and deadpan delivery is back, with Posey driving the film with her energetic performance as she rushes from one skewed camera angle to the next in increasingly nifty costume designs. The presentation is very visual, almost a musical, and the result is a welcome return of the adventures of Henry Fool.

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