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May 20, 2007
Fay Grim
It's always dangerous to see a sequel when you haven't seen the original; you never know exactly how much of the background that you're lacking is important to getting the point.
So I went into Fay Grim with a little trepidation, not having seen Henry Fool. The story of Fay Grim sets things up pretty well, though, even if you don't know the backstory. Apparently, the story is that Henry, a mysterious drifter, has vanished into thin air after committing some unspecified foul deeds. But first, he left his "confessions" in a series of rambling notebooks, which are scattered around the globe.
But Henry is the MacGuffin of Fay Grim, which focuses on his ex-wife (Parker Posey), who gets roped into trying to collect those notebooks. Her imprisoned poet brother (James Urbaniak), his publisher (Chuck Montgomery) and a CIA agent (Jeff Goldblum) all have an interest in finding Henry's confessions, and Fay gets dispatched into the world of high-stakes espionage and international double-crossing.
Early reviews said this movie stands up on its own, but I found myself really wanting to know more about how these people got where they are (yes, I know where the video store is, so I can answer some of these questions). But what I saw was pretty good.
What carries the movie is Posey's beautiful deadpanning of all her lines. People come to her with stories of terrorism and treachery, and she responds, "OK. Whatever." in so many words, which would sound ridiculous from some, but she carries it off.
The look of the movie is memorable. Director Hal Hartley shoots every scene with the camera tilted about 30 degrees, which works somehow. And the visuals, with Fay running around Paris and Istanbul, really put you in there with her.
There are a few laughs - mostly as a result of Posey underplaying her hand - and one very memorable scene involving a cellphone set to "vibrate". But the movie is mostly based on suspense, and plot twists, and I found myself wondering what was going on for a lot of the time. Maybe now I'll go to the video store and see if the first movie explains any of it.
Six stars out of ten.
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