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List Price: $14.98 | | Label: Magnolia
Salesrank: 31440
Released: May 22, 2007 |
| Our Price: $6.99 |
| Used Price: $1.20 |
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MPAA Rating: Unrated
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
Fay Grim (Parker Posey) is afraid her son Ned (Liam Aiken) will turn out like his father Henry who has been a fugitive for seven years. Fay s brother Simon is serving a prison sentence for helping Henry escape the country. Adding to her trials Fay is approached by a CIA agent (Jeff Goldblum) to help find Henry s missing notebooks in exchange for Simon s freedom. The mission escalates into a global con-game that plunges Fay deep into the deadly politics of espionage.Runtime: 118 minsFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: ACTION/ADVENTURE/THRILLERS Rating: R UPC: 876964000857 Manufacturer No: 10085
Description of Fay Grim:
Fay Grim is Hal Hartley's version of the espionage thriller. Consequently, it's more peculiar than pulse-pounding, but that's what makes his films appealing--to those who appreciate their off-kilter rhythms, that is. In Hartley's world, dialogue is often delivered with a straight face, no matter how funny the line or farcical the situation. In Fay Grim, he picks up seven years after Henry Fool left off, but this time the writer/director shifts focus from novelist Henry (Thomas Jay Ryan) to his seemingly scattered wife, Fay (Parker Posey). Their son, Ned (Liam Aiken), is now in his teens, but Henry remains at large, and Fay's "garbage man poet" brother, Simon (James Urbaniak), remains in prison for aiding in his escape. Then two CIA operatives, Fulbright (Jeff Goldblum) and Fogg (Leo Fitzpatrick), inform her that Henry is dead, so Fay agrees to track down his complete set of diaries in exchange for Simon's freedom. Apparently, Henry's incoherent ramblings contain state secrets. Joining forces with stewardess Bebe (Elina Löwensohn), Fay travels from Queens to Paris to Istanbul to fulfill her mission. In the end, Fay Grim resembles Hartley's noir parody Amateur, which featured Löwensohn, more than Henry Fool. It has less to say about talent and celebrity and more about mystery and intrigue. For the filmmaker, it also represents an opportunity to reunite a strong ensemble and to recover, at least for the time being, from a string of disappointments, like No Such Thing and The Girl From Monday. --Kathleen C. Fennessy
Fay Grim Reviews:
Pale shadow of Hartley at his best 
2009-12-12 - Yes, I know, "if you can't say anything nice" etc. I'll try, but I'm not sure it's going to work.
Hal Hartley's "Trust" remains one of my favorite independent films of all time, with "The Book of Life," "The Unbelievable Truth," "Simple Men," "Surviving Desire," and "Henry Fool" (to which "Fay Grim" is ostensibly a sequel) not far behind. By comparison, this film is a self-indulgent mess. Dutch angles are just not that interesting. Intentionally convoluted spy spoofs are just not that interesting. Even Hartley's undeniable gift for dialogue, in the absence of any effort to use it on behalf of characters that resonate, is just not that interesting.
I've read an interview or three in which Hartley claims that he's doing what's important to him, and I'd like to think that I wouldn't have spent several years running a fansite dedicated to his work if I weren't prepared to follow him wherever his muse took him. Still, I can't believe for a moment that he does not have more to say than "Fay Grim" would suggest.
"Henry Fool" with a genre spin 
2008-11-27 - Ten years after her husband, Henry Fool (Thomas Jay Ryan) fled the country in order to escape being arrested for murder, Fay Grim (Parker Posey) is approached by two CIA agents wanting her assistance in obtaining Henry's "confessions", a collection of notebooks which were previously believed to be the manuscript to a very poorly written novel, but in fact, might contain government secrets.
"Fay Grim" is the sequel to Hartley's 1997 film "Henry Fool". However, whereas "Henry Fool" could best be described as a pretentious art-house comedy/drama (and yes, I did like it very much), "Fay Grim" builds on many of the ideas that were set-up in "Henry Fool" and spins them into a tale of espionage and terrorism. In this film, Hartley uses the framework of a spy genre piece to answer many of the questions that were left unanswered at the end of "Henry Fool" - in particular, who is Henry, what was in his notebooks and why did he write them in the first place. For most of this film, Hartley does an excellent job of this, to the point where I actually started wondering if Hartley had all of these answers in mind when he wrote "Henry Fool". However, the film is let down by a weak and rather confusing ending (I'm still not really sure why Fay seemed to care so much for Bebe, a woman whom she meets along the way, at the end of the film, and I think that there were about three different (and contradictory) explanations given for the contents of the notebooks) which leaves things open for yet another sequel ("Simon Grim", perhaps). Having said all of that, if another film about Henry Fool and the Grims come out, then I will definitely be lining up to see it. Hal Hartley films are often described as an acquired taste, and although I have been able to find fault in all of his films that I have seen, I still have a taste for them and would gladly see more. Henry Fool is one of my favourite characters in a Hartley film and in movies in general, and any opportunity to see him again, would be worth it for me.
An acquired taste
2008-05-16 - This is not a film for everyone. It is definitely an acquired taste. At the time I picked up this movie, I was not aware that it was a sequel and with that being said, if you have not seen the previous movie, you will be able to watch this one on its own. I was attracted to it by the fact that the leading lady Fay Grim is played by the queen of independent movie industry, Parker Posey. It is hard to say what genre this film belongs to because it is so quirky. Dialog is exaggerated by all characters so it is intended to be somewhat surreal. I was suprised to see Parker Posey reprise her comedic take on cell phone in vibrating mode inside her underware. She did that in another movie and it was interesting to see it again becuase it is just as funny, if not more. To me this is a movie about the fabulist Henry Fool, who in spite of being a writer, spy and a liar is loved by his wife, son and brother in law. He is a rebel that everyone loves to hate, one of those characters that everyone is drawn to by his charisma regardless of the fact that one can feel touble from afar. Film has dry humor and appears to drag at the moment, but cast is funny. Saffron Burrows is so beautiful and sexy one cannot take his eyes of her. Definitely not intended for wide audiences, but absolutely unique in its own way.
Not for everyone... 
2008-02-22 - Have you ever watched a movie and it just clicked? The movie wasn't perfect - in fact it was probably quite flawed - but it hit you at just the right time for it to resonate. It's a movie that you hesitate to recommend, it's a movie you can perfectly understand people hating, and yet for you it actually rose to the level of masterpiece. And even as you love it you realize that if you had seen it at a time when you were a little more distracted, or a little more impatient, or a little more tired, you would have probably hated it. Lost in Translation was such a film for me. So was Mother Night. And now i happily add Fay Grim to that list.
I should have hated it. It betrayed the quirky simplicity of Henry Fool by making the characters all part of some absurdly complex and far-reaching spy plot. It almost plays like a satire on Hollywood sensibilities: "How about if we make a simple film about a frustrated, misunderstood writer who inspires an unrealized poet?" "OK, as long as the writer ends up actually being an international spy wanted by the CIA!"
And yet, this film works. It works magnificently. Not really a sequel to Henry Fool, more like a riff on Henry Fool, like an interesting thought experiment in re-imagining an existing story in the most far-fetched way. But it works. The spy plot is Byzantine in it's complexity but if you're paying attention it remains logical and consistent. The character are - as in all Hal Hartley films - played in an overly theatrical manner, somewhere between kabuki and sketch comedy, and yet it works. The dialogue... the dialogue is classic Hartley, endlessly quotable, with fabulously intelligent lines dropping left and right.
I can't promise you'll like this, I can't even promise you'll stay awake. All I can say is if you liked Henry Fool and Amateur (and DEFINATELY start with those-- DO NOT make this your first Hartley film) then give this a shot.
An Unexpected Sequel
2008-01-01 - As Henry Fool is among my top 10 favorite films, I was shocked, surprised, baffled I'd never before heard of a "sequel" until told by my brother a few months ago. I wrestled with watching, not wanting to spoil a nearly perfect film memory with a substandard follow-up. I needn't have waited, as Fay Grim finds Hartley and Co. in as fine a form as ever, the characters we fell in love with in "Henry" now older, wiser and a little world weary. Parker Posey is a force of nature as Fay. We watch her still somewhat unraveling life as a single mom in Queens, worrying about her brother, Simon still serving a long prison sentence for his role in Henry's escape - an episode that confounded viwers at the end of the first film. Additionally she's fearful of the legacy Henry left for their child (the marvelous Liam Aiken) now a teenager ever in trouble at school, and who's escapade at film's start (involving an ancient type of ViewMaster with pornographic images, suggesting the long missing Henry has somehow made contact with his son), and some guilt over her affair with Simon's publisher.
A film fleshing out these characters is precisely what most directors would've made, but oh, not Hal. From the first minutes, things spin out of control when CIA Agent Fulbright shows up in her kitchen, proposing to her that those journals of confession . . . . "the masterpiece" Henry lugged throughout the first film are a sort of key to understanding multi-national terroristic occurrences that peppered the last part of the 20th century. A complex plan is set in motion for Fay to retrieve Henry's diaries in France, and single mom Fay, begins a worldwide tour that pushes the story into one of international intrigue, espionage, the power of love and longed for redemption.
All of the classic Hartley "ticks" are present: odd camera angles, rapid fire, clearly annunciated yet near impossible to comprehend dialogue delivered both rapidly and in a long forgotten deadpan style best described as "theatrical" - and other devices that alienate some audiences, while invigorating others. It is not without flaws, but this is true of all masterpieces, and Fay Grim is a masterpiece. Hartley takes these now well known characters (at least to "Fool" fans) and obliterates any preconceived notions we may have held about their fates. While there are plenty of darkly comic moments to cause outright laughter, there are, too, scenes of enormous emotional weight that are no less than Shakespearean in their delivery. It is this combination of comic and gut busting intensity that Hartley has always excelled at, and which make his work so genre-bending.
The performances from every single cast member are uniformly excellent. This is true right down to the smallest roles which in most films might be perceived as "extras" such as a hotel clerk, or a security guard, a casual observer in the street - all of them are people who are burned into your memory and essential to the telling of the tale at hand: there seems to be no such thing as an "extra" in this film. Particular kudos go to Ms. Posey takes Fay on a truly life transforming journey. One need only look at the image of her from the film's beginning and the very final image of her to understand the heart of Fay and of this film.
I've avoided reading reviews of "Fay Grim" before watching it tonight, but the fact that a year after its release I hadn't even heard of it, tells me this didn't do as well as anyone may have hoped. While I'm disappointed that this film (or Henry) take back seats in audience popularity to the mass produced dreck from big budget Hollywood system, it is encouraging to see that Hartley is still at it, still relevant, still making movies that can sweep one with the force of a hurricane into a world of wonder - a world where everything disparate and foreign and everyone "good" or "bad" is forever connected, still part of the same amazing universe.
