HENRY FOOL
Reviewed by Harvey Karten, Ph.D. Sony Pictures Classics Director: Hal Hartley Writer: Hal Hartley Cast: James Urbaniak, Maria Porter, Parker Posey, Thomas Jay Ryan, Kevin Corrigan, Miho Nikaido, Chuck Montgomery, Nicholas Hope
Hal Hartley exhibits interests in "Henry Fool" that he featured in his offbeat premiere movie, "The Unbelievable Truth." Combining melodrama with irony, Hartley's first movie dealt with a mysterious man in black, often confused for a priest, who called himself a garage mechanic and who provoked discussion about his background all over town. Hartley now continues to explore the odd situation that occurs within ordinary workaday lives with his current film--having taken a wrong turn in his career three years ago with "Flirt," a three-part tale telling the same dull story in three dull, similar ways. Fortunately, "Henry Fool" is considerably more entertaining and even accessible: almost.
More theatrical than cinematic, "Henry Fool" is an ambitious work, an attempt to pinpoint the American identity at this point by use of a fable. Hartley is influenced by sources as distinguished as "Faust" and "Kaspar Hauser," and what's more his latest work conjures up giants of the theater like Harold Pinter and David Mamet as readily as Simon, a nerdish and terminally shy garbage man, conjures up a modern Mephistopheles. While some viewers may have reservations about its length, Hartley's subject matter and imaginative treatment of several important themes justify the time spent. Surely, if "Godzilla" can hold its targeted audience for over two hours, "Henry Fool" should have no trouble doing the same for an intelligent constituency.
Henry Fool (Thomas Jay Ryan) is a charismatic personality who appears in most scenes and serves as mysterious mentor to a spiritually defeated trash man, Simon Grim (James Urbaniak). He shows up one day to rent a basement space in the Grim household in much that a bum receives shelter in an abandoned house in Harold Pinter's "The Caretaker." Both Pinter's and Hartley's creations are frighteningly mysterious, making us curious about their backgrounds and exerting a strong effect on those who become parts of their circles. Henry Fool immediately senses his host Simon's lack of self-worth, though Simon is a responsible person who takes care of two dependents: a clinically depressed mother (Maria Porter) and a nymphomaniac sister Fay (Parker Posey). Despite his scruffy appearance, Simon's new friend Henry speaks in a literary style with a well-modulated voice, tells Simon that he is completing a magnum opus called "Confessions," and prompts Simon to get off his knees and begin writing. No sooner does Simon begin scribbling poetry furiously in a notebook than Henry notices that his new pupil is spouting iambic pentameter. When Simon's poetry begins to find an audience, Simon is reviled by some as a pornographer while praised by others as a literary sage. Henry urges Simon to gain experience to bring further depth to the writing, but Simon is already knee-deep in life, observing his promiscuous sister's goings-on, his despondent mother's cynical pronouncements, and his abusive neighbor's violence. As Henry's background is revealed, the movie loses some of its edge. As the enigma of the mysterious guest is bared, the second half of the story waxes conventional.
Like Jeremy Pikser and Warren Beatty's character Bulworth, Hartley uses his people to satirize the family values excesses that periodically threaten to take control of America's political process. Warren (Kevin Corrigan), who regularly abuses his wife and stepdaughter, campaigns for a reactionary Congressional candidate who uses his outward decency to cloak his anti-immigrant views. "Henry Fool," though, is not primarily a political tract but in the first instance a fable that proves that we can reinvent ourselves while it secondarily takes jabs at anti-progressive statesmen and the culture of conformity. Henry is a most likable villain, even after we learn of his crime, a chain-smoking, serious man given sympathetic depth by Canadian actor Thomas Jay Ryan in his debut performance in a feature movie. Long-haired, bearded, and scruffy throughout, Ryan's Henry is a complex individual whose psyche is carefully unravelled, fully exhibiting his humanity as well as his flaws, while Hartley does likewise for side characters like Father Hawkes (Nicholas Hope), a doubter who advises Simon on financial dealings and the ways of the world. Parker Posey is striking as always, this time in the role of a hard-assed, unhappy, unemployed but attractive and chic siren who lives a love-hate relationship with the title character. James Urbaniak is just fine as a nerdy trash man turned minstrel under the influenced of a shady friend whose own background is irrelevant to his sway over the young man. "Henry Fool" should be used by the dean of every liberal arts college in America to show that there is far more to life than being successful in a trade or profession. The movie lobbies for the potency of words, the ability of the rich, English language to give life meaning even to the humblest of people who subject themselves to its magic. Rated R. Running time: 138 minutes. (C) Harvey Karten 1998
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