FAY GRIM

Reviewed by Harvey S. Karten
Magnolia Pictures
Grade: C+
Directed by: Hal Hartley
Written By: Hal Hartley
Cast: Parker Posey, Jeff Goldblum, James Urbaniak, Saffron
Burrows, Liam Aiken, Elina Lowensohn,
Leo Fitzpatrick, Chuck Montgomery, Thomas Jay Ryan
Screened at: Review 2, NYC, 2/12/07
Opens: May 18, 2007

There are different angles that directors can use to spoof spy
stories. The most celebrated is used in the 007 series, the most
amusing being those movies in which James Bond uses ultra-
chic devices to thwart his enemies while showing his expertise
as a womanizer and gourmet. One step removed, the Austin
Power series spoofs Bond, as Mike Myers is brought out of
cryo-freeze to play a heavily dated (in both ways) agent with
loud clothes and retro lingo to do service for the Queen.

Hal Hartley's own satiric method dates eight years back when
his character, a shy garbage-man from Woodside, Queens
named Simon Grim is encouraged by Henry Fool to write avant-
garde poetry, with Grim paying Fool back for motivating his
success by helping him to escape from the authorities after
Henry accidentally killed a man. With Fool out of harm's way,
Grim is caught, tried, and sentenced to ten years in federal jail
for aiding in the escape of a murderer. That's where Hartley's
new film, "Fay Grim" begins.

One need not have seen "Henry Fool" to be "with it," but it pays
to know that Hartley is an off-beat writer-director who draws
from disaffected people from New York's Queens and Long
Island, using them to elicit tart, deadpan comedy. With "Fay
Grim," the comedy is in no way of the sitcom or belly-laugh
variety. Everything is downplayed. In dealing with world
governments–countries getting mentioned include the U.S.,
Russia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Belgium, Israel, Turkey, and
France–Hartley weaves his tale around them as though telling
us a bedtime story rather than relating what could be an epic
about a document that could cause the overthrow of rulers of
several major powers.

The plot in this overlong tale becomes increasingly convoluted.
Characters introduced from various national, competing
interests. More confusing, literary codes are broached to such
an extent that the human touch becomes increasingly remote.
"Fay Grim" looks like a puzzle to solve like that posed in "The
Da Vinci Code," but the encryption itself in this story is
irrelevant.

The title character, Fay Grim, is played by the always radiant
Parker Posey, a character actress who is less neurotic this time
around than she has been in such roles as Meg Swam in "Best
in Show," Callie Webb in "For Your Consideration," and "Sissy
Knox in "A Mighty Wind." She is barely able to cope with a
bright 14-year-old son, Ned (Liam Aiken), just expelled from
school for showing off porn that was sent to him from abroad.
Fay considers herself sort of single because her husband,
Henry Fool (Thomas Jay Ryan), has disappeared for seven
years, on the run after killing someone on Long Island while
Fay's brother Simon (James Urbaniak) is in jail for aiding the
escape. A CIA agent, Fulbright (Jeff Goldblum), wants Fay to
help him to recover a six-volume encrypted manuscript that
Henry had written. Fay agrees provided that Fulbright gets
Simon released from prison. Thereby begins a journey that
leads Fay to Paris and Istanbul, where she encounters agents of
foreign powers and a major international terrorist.

Sarah Cawley Cabiya's hi-definition photography is awful,
whether by intention or otherwise–dreadfully light and hazy,
though one must praise Mr. Hartley for capturing so many
scenes in Paris and especially Istanbul on what must have been
a shoestring budget. As members of the audience try to figure
out who the good guys are, who is telling the truth and what
anyone really wants from anyone else, one can't really blame
them for wondering whether there is enough information about
what's at stake to care.

Not Rated. 118 minutes 2007 by Harvey Karten
Member: NY Film Critics Online