A tongue-firmly-in-cheek spy thriller which is about the games along the way, not the actual plot. If you can accept that - and tolerate relentless use of the Dutch Angle - then you'll have a lot of fun. If that isn't your cup of tea, then this is very hard going.
I haven't seen the original Henry Fool and cannot compare this to it. The movie is reviewed as a standalone.
It's clear that the budget was extremely tight. This movie takes that limitation and turns it into an asset - creativity takes the place of special effects and the now ubiquitous chase scenes and choreographed shootouts. Props are kept to a minimum, so are locations, costumes, vehicles and the like. Swooping, highly technical camera shots are noticeable by their absence. This would have crippled a lesser director, but Hal Hartley takes these things and makes the limitations stylish.
This is a very stylish movie.
The way people talk and interact, the way the scenes flow or cut or jump, how characters evolve - it's all done in a way I've never seen before. It should be clunky. Somehow it flows. An awful lot of ground gets covered, with the absolute minimum of fuss. There are a lot of lessons here for jaded audiences and amateur film makers alike.
The acting isn't going to win any awards, but it doesn't have to. The style of the movie doesn't call for large dramatic turns. Parker Posey does very well as a woman taking control, Jeff Goldblum's role might have been a suit tailored for him, and the young Liam Aiken (as Ned Grim) has quite a turn as a precocious teenager. The rest of the cast are alright, and that's all that's needed. The whole movie is about people keeping a straight face while playing apparently serious games, and large displays of emotion would simply get in the way of the fun.
Unfortunately the film makes a strategic mis-step about two-thirds through. The first half of the movie sets up a delightful farce, with the initially beleaguered Fay Grim becoming someone rather smarter than those around her. It could have kept going this way, and to my mind it should have. Instead the movie steers into darker, more serious territory. When it does, the film's two biggest assets – the games between characters, and the feeling of a fairytale – are lost. Instead, Hartley chooses to concentrate on the plot line.
It's not a good call. The plot line is perfect for a farce; it's not suitable for where Hartley tries to go. He nearly manages to make it work, but the ground prepared in the first half simply isn't right for what he tries to move toward in the second. If the audience got this far, it's still worth seeing affairs through to the end, though.
Smart, stylish, and it makes audiences engage with what's going on.
I haven't seen the original Henry Fool and cannot compare this to it. The movie is reviewed as a standalone.
It's clear that the budget was extremely tight. This movie takes that limitation and turns it into an asset - creativity takes the place of special effects and the now ubiquitous chase scenes and choreographed shootouts. Props are kept to a minimum, so are locations, costumes, vehicles and the like. Swooping, highly technical camera shots are noticeable by their absence. This would have crippled a lesser director, but Hal Hartley takes these things and makes the limitations stylish.
This is a very stylish movie.
The way people talk and interact, the way the scenes flow or cut or jump, how characters evolve - it's all done in a way I've never seen before. It should be clunky. Somehow it flows. An awful lot of ground gets covered, with the absolute minimum of fuss. There are a lot of lessons here for jaded audiences and amateur film makers alike.
The acting isn't going to win any awards, but it doesn't have to. The style of the movie doesn't call for large dramatic turns. Parker Posey does very well as a woman taking control, Jeff Goldblum's role might have been a suit tailored for him, and the young Liam Aiken (as Ned Grim) has quite a turn as a precocious teenager. The rest of the cast are alright, and that's all that's needed. The whole movie is about people keeping a straight face while playing apparently serious games, and large displays of emotion would simply get in the way of the fun.
Unfortunately the film makes a strategic mis-step about two-thirds through. The first half of the movie sets up a delightful farce, with the initially beleaguered Fay Grim becoming someone rather smarter than those around her. It could have kept going this way, and to my mind it should have. Instead the movie steers into darker, more serious territory. When it does, the film's two biggest assets – the games between characters, and the feeling of a fairytale – are lost. Instead, Hartley chooses to concentrate on the plot line.
It's not a good call. The plot line is perfect for a farce; it's not suitable for where Hartley tries to go. He nearly manages to make it work, but the ground prepared in the first half simply isn't right for what he tries to move toward in the second. If the audience got this far, it's still worth seeing affairs through to the end, though.
Smart, stylish, and it makes audiences engage with what's going on.