Henry Fool (1998)

disgusting, overrated, pointless

Absolutely Brilliant!

The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

A seriocomic epic from '97, possibly Hartley's magnum opus, with a running time of over two hours, a cast of dozens and gorgeous sharp-focus cinematography. Fans should be reassured that the familiar Hartley performance style is still at work—oddly inflected line readings with long, pregnant pauses in between and the occasional two-characters scene with the actors circling each other like wary kabuki dancers. The rambling, often preposterous screenplay could have been composed by the titular Fool himself, sprawled out at the kitchen table with a sixer of Bud, but somehow all the indie shenanigans really come together in a way that kept me watching attentively to the last, ambiguous shot (which direction is Henry running in?). At about the two-hour mark, this stylized, shambolic comedy turns serious, bringing out the themes of guilt, atonement and personal responsibility that have been implicit all along. Great performances by the usual expert cast, though, like other reviewers, I missed Martin Donovan, Adrienne Shelly and other regulars from earlier Hartley films.

What if the mentor who gave you success turned out to be the worst writer you've ever read...and was counting on your newfound influence? What if he married your sister? What if his ego was as big as Montana and at the same time as fragile as glass? How could you ever repay him? How could you ever resolve these questions? Ask Hal Hartley. Or see his movie.This independent seriocomedy opens by studying a generally bungling garbageman named Simon Grim. He soon makes perhaps the first friend he's ever made in his life with Henry Fool, a sharply droll scoundrel, though a failure as an author. Henry's giant ego, what with his delusions of literary genius and grandeur, not to mention his comparison between his pedophilia and that of Socrates, justifies his wily, prose-like lines. Henry incidentally exposes Simon to the life of literature, who then writes a profoundly staggering poem, as we judge by the reactions of all who come across even a few lines of it. As Simon is swept up on his rise to the prestigious apex of the most talked-about underground poet in the world, Henry's own endeavors at recognition merely bring about unpleasant dismissal by the very publisher who commits with Simon to issue his already legendary poem.Hartley is a very personal filmmaker. I particularly like a director whose film is entirely owned by him or her, especially one with an unlikely extensive running time like this one. Because his script is entirely his own, and created from scratch, he has actors suggest more than they divulge. Simon is a great poet because of how socially bound he is, never speaking or changing his expression and thus always looking inward, much like great poets have, like Rilke for instance.Hartley wisely doesn't show the poem or the "confessions" over which Henry has long toiled. Whether they are good or bad depends on the histrionics of the outside story. They are almost the classic mystery items in so many thrillers and pulpy crime pictures, but to a much superior effect. They are not subsidiary, but vital.

Hal Hartley layered this masterpiece so seamlessly that it cannot be considered except as a whole.The essence of this film is the importance of great art and that one can, and should, commit oneself to the creation of great art independent of what any and all others think.Richard Lattimore, in the poem "If" wrote: "Do it then/if you do/incontrovertibly know/the worst thing you have done/is the best thing under the sun/if it was written true/if it was meant to be so."Simon Grim is gripped by the power of art, of a great lyrical work of poetry that leaves him no choice but to submit to it without reservation. Ultimately, its power, like a brutal gravitational force, warps the lives of those around him, and yet Simon himself, while transformed, is left largely untouched.Riots ensue. A school is burned down. One woman dies and a child is born. A worthless scoundrel becomes an ordinary, blue-collar father. A garbage man wins the Pulitzer prize.And yet I have not even touched upon what is truly great in this movie. It is only in the madness of poetry that one can drink of its greatness. If you have the capacity to be mad, to love, to dream, then perhaps this movie is for you. You will find your soul refreshed.If not, you will say to yourself, "What a maniac!" and think no more of it.But there are few true chances for inspiration in this life, and this is one of them. So much the worse for you if this chance is lost to you.

Hartley is a great observer, and Henry Fool is a solid proof of it. A film which is more real than reality itself. It is so cold that it gets warm, so slow that is seems fast(like all his cinema Hartley drawed one of the most interesting characters ever seen on a screen, an heterogenic rebel called Henry Fool. I felt deeply touched when I saw how the starting shyness of Urbaniak turns into a stable and strong self-security, and the collateral effect which causes around him. I'd like to remark the emotional load contained in the soundtrack, which I'm sure you know it is composed and partially played by Hartley itself. Minimalism is a word very attached to Hartley, but the real magic resides in the wise usage of it. I still haven't seen The Book of Life, because Europe doesn't know much about Hal (I love and comprenhend him so much...)