Customer Reviews

Henry Fool [VHS]

5 star:		(26)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

Hartley's Masterpiece: An epic, dark comedy with heart and soul and bruises.

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 delivers every time.

Warning: this is not a widescreen presentation of the original film, which was in 1.66:1 aspect ratio. IT IS A MATTED (VERTICALLY TRIMMED) VERSION OF THE PAN-AND-SCAN VHS VERSION, WHICH MEANS IT'S 60% OF THE ORIGINAL IMAGE. (The reported 1.78:1 aspect ratio on the DVD box is correct, even the claim that it's anamorphic widescreen is correct: it's just that the image you're seeing was generated by taking the "reformatted for your TV" VHS version, which chopped off the sides of the original theatrical image, and *further chopping* it to fit the widescreen format by eliminating the top and bottom of the VHS image. This is a common practice for widescreen movie presentations on HDTV, but it's always inexcusable). It's unwatchable even if you only know the movie from the VHS pan-and-scan version (which was 80% of the film). And the transfer is poor: it looks worse on my TV than the VHS tape I rented a few years ago.

What an incredible letdown, because the film is sheer genius.

It's a shame that "Henry Fool" remains relatively overlooked and underrated. In large part because it's such a departure from his earlier films, Hal Hartley purists couldn't stomach the epic scale and thematic shift of the film, and audiences who would likely appreciate the movie never even saw it. In my opinion though, Henry Fool is a true masterpiece of American cinema and one of the best films of the 1990s. If you look at films like "Trust", "Simple Men" and "Amateur" as early, developmental works in Hal Hartley's maturation as a filmmaker, and then see "Flirt" as his attempt to identify himself more as a "director" than a "writer", then "Henry Fool" is the fruit of that labor - not only is it precisely, minimalistically and efficiently directed, but it's far and away his best writing yet. His favorite themes are expanded and blown up within a mythic frame, and his casting here of stage actors (especially the hefty presence of Thomas Jay Ryan) separates the film from Hartley's earlier work. However, it retains the philosophical tone, the inner musings of character, and the precision of their actions. This time, however, Hartley accomplishes this by expanding the frame with which he grapples with friendship, family, ambition, achievement and betrayal, and ends up with a shattering parable about who we choose to be in our lives. The film is about greatness, and thanks to Hartley's fearlessness in envisioning conceptions of greatness, it is, itself, great.

One tries not to throw the word brilliant around too often, as doing so robs the word of any meaning, so I am quite sincere when I bestow the word brilliant on this remarkable film - after all, what is artistic brilliance if not the ability to call forth beauty from the midst of ugliness? This story takes place against a depressing backdrop of poverty, desperation, and dysfunction. Simon Grim (James Urbaniak) works as a garbage man, endures physical attacks on the streets, and comes home each night to a thoroughly dysfunctional family. His mother is obviously depressed and, at times, nonresponsive, while his sister Faye (Parker Posey) is irresponsible and only interested in fulfilling her own sexual needs as often as possible. Simon himself seems anti-social if not mentally challenged. Then a stranger named Henry Fool (Thomas Jay Ryan) shows up and changes everything. He has a magnetic personality, albeit one that pushes some people away while drawing others in, and he befriends Simon. Beaming literary pretentiousness, Henry goes on and on about his personal memoirs (or confessions), which he assures Simon will revolutionize the world and society when they are completed and published. When Simon begins following Henry's lead, he produces a new kind of poetry, one which Henry hails as cutting-edge and revolutionary. While his mother and sister ridicule him, Simon is encouraged by Henry to keep writing, rightly pointing to some amazing changes that occur in individuals who read a sampling of his work. Critics initially hail his great poem as poorly written and pornographic (the ultimate put-down), yet Simon perseveres through doubt, tragedy, and controversy, eventually meeting with great success - which changes the lives of these characters irrevocably.

In many ways, this film really is all about Henry Fool himself. He's a mystery for much of this film, a strange external force that shows up out of nowhere and changes the lives of those around him. He is an exceptional fellow - but not necessarily what he appears. As the film progresses, we learn more and more about his troubled past and witness his emotional decline in both the present and the future. His darkest secrets and weaknesses are revealed, he becomes more and more dependent on alcohol and cigarettes, and the mask covering the ugliness of his life begins to slip. Even at his worst, though, he is thoroughly human and morbidly fascinating (and something of a mirror to the souls of many of us, if we're honest enough to admit it), especially at the end when the story has basically come full circle.

There is no character like Henry Fool, and Jay Henry Thomas is absolutely amazing in the role. Great performances abound in this film, while Hal Hartley's direction is impeccable. I don't know what to call the world Hartley has created in this film: it's hyper-surreal yet completely realistic at the same time. It deals with an amazing range of issues head on; oftentimes shockingly direct yet always poignant and surprisingly deep. As others have said, this is not a film that could ever have been borne of a major studio; only an independent filmmaker can take the kind of chances that Hartley takes here, or take such a seemingly simple idea and imbue it with such depth, emotional resonance, and integrity. Henry Fool is nothing less than a stellar, bloody brilliant film.

Awesome.

This is one of my top-five favorite films of all time.

I own this on VHS and I will buy the DVD as well.

It's understandable that some intelligent, creative people may dislike this film. The movie demonstrates how one can be brilliant, skilled and dedicated (Henry), but ultimately unable to deliver.

Henry's grasp of language and apparent intellectual depth are so engaging, we are fooled into believing his own claims to greatness. In a world crawling with self-proclaimed writers, artists and poets, it's a painful truth that talent and desire often do not lead to success.

But all of this is really just a plot vehicle for the overriding themes of the movie.

In the end, this is a film about friendship, loyalty, pride and family. And it's beautifully done.

I've watched it several times and I'll admit that it drags a bit in places, but I still love it.

If Hartley were reading this page of reviews, he would be laughing himself silly. So many of the reviewers here could be Henry Fool that it's pathetic.

The first thing one has to realize about this movie (and which should be obvious to anyone who was watching even halfway closely) is that Henry Fool is full of it. The sheer irony of the film is that he is nothing of what he makes himself out to be (a tortured genius, a misunderstood writer, a callous scoundrel, etc.) and simultaneously everything that he rails against (primarily the pseudo-intellectual elite). Henry is the epitome of the pretentious slacker plaguing modern America - always complaining, always about to do something momentous, always focusing on his/her needs, always feeding off of others, and never providing an unselfish moment for others. Henry makes time for Simon only because it amuses him to do so - he feels superior to Simon, even in the face of Simon's awakening greatness, but once Simon becomes independent of him (witness the negotiation scene between Simon and the publishing mogul), then Henry dismisses Simon as part of the world that doesn't understand his "unique" and lamentably absent genius.

But, to his defense, Henry does exhibit flashes of true humanity. He does love Fay, although he is incapable of showing it for more than a few minutes at a time. He is genuinely concerned about the abused Pearl and her mother, although it unwittingly gets him into a larger mess than anticipated. In his attempts to show his artistic sensibilities at the start of the film, Henry unwittingly sparks Simon's genius by encouraging him to write down any thoughts that strike him, although its clear that Henry expects nothing of import. Henry is the catalyst for Simon, Fay, and others' lives, and the fact that he does so little while talking so much is part of the ironic fun in this film - those who speak the least (Simon, Henry's son, and Daughter Dang) are the ones who do the most.

At the bottom of it all, Henry's biggest failing to refusing to accept his mistakes and crimes. He claims unrepentance but feels a deep-seated shame that comes out in his excuses - "People like us, Simon, great writers, can't be tied down to the everyday mundane existence of the common rabble" is a speech that resurfaces time and time again as a reason to avoid everyday labor, and the fact that he claims that his affair with the 13-year-old is part of some conspiracy against him is symptomatic of his refusal to come to terms with himself.

The nature of discontent and how it brings out our seamier qualities is exemplified in Henry and other characters. The characters who accept their lives as given are the ones who succeed, while those who are discontented are driven to crime, drug and alcohol abuse, denigration of their families, and suicide "Does it matter that it's not remarkable?" asks Simon of his clinically depressed mother. "Yes," she replies, shortly before her death.

In short, Henry is a fool - he knows what is right, but he does wrong for the gluttonous joy of it. He knows what he should do to succeed in the world but chooses to live off of others because it would be too much effort otherwise. He has every reason to be content (a house, a lovely wife, a loving son, and a steady if menial job) but prefers his cynical and self-destructive worldview. He is everything that the world tells us can bring no good - and yet, he does manage to procreate two great things of beauty while living with the Grims - an amazing poet and a kindly, intelligent son. In the end, Henry is provided with a choice - to either run from his troubles as he has always done or to face the music and be a mensch. Which does he choose? is the question that Hartley leaves us with, along with the rest of this quirky, bumpy film.

While a good show, "Henry Fool" is not as engaging as "Trust" nor as offbeat as "Amateur." However, it is still a film worth watching. Forget the over-wraught analytical nonsense that the some many of the other reviewers and I have spewed - instead, watch this film and see if you can recognize a Henry Fool in your life.

Judging from what I have read about this film on IMDb and here, "Henry Fool" is a film that you will either love or hate with a vengeance. I liked it very much, but I can also see how people could hate it. "Henry Fool" is a story that is light on plot, but is carried by its characters. Simon Grim is a New York garbage collector who lives a miserable existence with his depressed mother and his promiscuous sister (Parker Posey). However, all of that changes when Henry Fool (Thomas Jay Ryan), an ex-convict and aspiring writer, rents a room in Simon's basement and convinces Simon that he should quit his job and focus all of his efforts on writing a poem of epic proportions.

Whether you like this film or not will largely depend on how you feel about the main characters and where your sense of humour lies. This film is classed as a comedy and I found it to be very funny, but the humour is not "conventional" comedy humour. All of the lines are delivered dead-pan and their humour largely lies in their context within the film. Similarly, I loved the characters in this film for their general weirdness (and the fact that Posey and Ryan are both excellent in their roles, especially Ryan, without them this film would have fallen flat), but some other reviewers seem to find these characters to be boring and vulgar.

Overall, if you are used to watching primarily mainstream movies, then I would say that there is a good chance that you will dislike this film, but if you like to see films that are a bit difference, then this film is worth a shot.

This is one of the few movies that I've seen twice, and I'd see it again but it has left town! The movie is definitely not your run-of-the mill movie. It's a gritty yet optimistic (but not corny) story about life's possibilities, hopefulness blended with cynicism. I sat spellbound. A truly original and creative movie--one of a kind.

I saw this movie in the theatre because I liked Parker Poesy but I left loving all of them.... the character that is.... THis movie is great.... It is a film student dream.... Packed with great acting and writing and director it has everything... This is must see if you like independent films.... if you like movie like titanic this is not for you..... but for everyone else that has taste watched and you will love it..

First of all, Leonard Maltin wouldn't know a good film if it fell on him. Secondly, this may be Hartley's greatest film. A witty, urbane masterpiece that is thought provoking and moving.