List Price: $14.98You Pay Only: $13.49 You Save: $1.49 (10%)Prices subject to change.
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
Audience Rating: Unrated
Binding: DVD
Brand: MAGNOLIA HOME ENTERTAINMENT
EAN: 0876964000857
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
Label: Magnolia
Manufacturer: Magnolia
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Magnolia
Release Date: May 22, 2007
Running Time: 118 minutes
Sales Rank: 44820
Studio: Magnolia
Theatrical Release Date: 2006
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Editorial Review:
Product Description:
A 10-years-later continuation of henry fool where fay grim is coerced by a cia agent to try & locate notebooks that belonged to her fugitive ex-husband. Published in them is information that could compromise the security of the u.S. causing fay to first head to paris to fetch them .. Studio: Magnolia Pict Hm Ent Release Date: 07/29/2008 Starring: Parker Posey Jeff Goldblum Run time: 118 minutes Rating: R
Amazon.com:
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
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - "Henry Fool" with a genre spin
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 ... Read More
Rating: - An acquired taste
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.
Rating:  - Not for everyone...
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 ... Read More
Rating: - An Unexpected Sequel
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 ... Read More
Rating:  - An Ambiguous Spoof
This is my first Hal Hartley film and I had no idea it was a sequel to `Henry Fool'. Parker Posey plays Fay Grim, the wife of Henry Fool. She does not seem to have her life in order. But who can blame her. Her husband is on the run or dead, her brother is in jail and her son just got expelled from school. What could be worse?
Here is where this espionage spoof film takes off on its implausible but interesting ride. A C.I.A. agent is waiting in her home for her to return. He informs her that her husband is dead, and the multi-volume diary he wrote is wanted by every government in the world. And now that they know Parker can obtain some of them, they all try to use her.
The C.I.A. convince Fay to fly to Paris to retrieve the books that are rightfully hers. But do not tell her that she is being used in a game of espionage. As she gets thrown into this world of international intrigue, she learns to play the game in her own way. A quirky film that definitely lends itself for another sequel.
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