Fay Grim

A belated follow-up to his acclaimed 1997 Henry Fool, Hal Hartley's Fay Grim finds the eponymous heroine (Parker Posey, reprising her role) struggling to bring up the son she had by failed writer Henry, who disappeared overseas after being involved in a fatal accident. To Fay's surprise, a CIA agent (Jeff Goldblum) informs her that Henry died and left behind volumes of his much-anticipated “Confessions” (now in the hands of French authorities), which actually contain invaluable information relating to global terrorism networks. Fay agrees to help the CIA on the condition that her brother Simon, a trash collector-turned-poet who was jailed for helping Henry flee, is freed. The motley characters embark on a mission to retrieve Henry's notebooks and decipher his wild writing, a quest that involves journeys to Paris and Istanbul (the New York part of the tale was actually shot in Berlin). Although none of this seems like a logical continuation of Henry Fool, some fun can be found in Posey's incandescent screen presence and in Liam Aiken's low comedy turn as her son (who's kicked out of school for sharing pornography with his classmates). But the film's shoestring budget is clearly at odds with the tale of global intrigue and the plotline devolves into something along the lines of a third-rate 1960s spy thriller. Not recommended. [Note: DVD extras include the Fay Grim episode of the HDNet original series Higher Definition (28 min.), a 17-minute “making-of” featurette, two minutes of deleted scenes, and trailers. Bottom line: a solid extras package for a disappointing sequel.] (P. Hall)