Henry Fool

Henry Fool is a 1997 American black comedy-drama film written, produced and directed by Hal Hartley, featuring Thomas Jay Ryan, James Urbaniak, and Parker Posey. Set like previous Hartley films in less affluent parts of Long Island, it recounts how the lives of a fatherless family are overturned by a mysterious outsider and how, as in The Unbelievable Truth, expectation and reality again conflict.

The film won the best screenplay award at the 1998 Cannes Film Festival.[1] A sequel, titled Fay Grim, was released in 2006. Another sequel, titled Ned Rifle, was released in 2014.

Socially inept garbage-man Simon Grim is befriended by Henry Fool, a witty rogue and untalented novelist just released from seven years in jail for attempting sex with an underage girl. Henry opens the world of literature to Simon, and inspires him to write "the great American poem." Simon struggles to get his work recognized, and it is often dismissed as pornographic and scatological, but Henry continues to push and inspire Simon to get the poem published. Henry recommends that Simon submit his work to Angus, an old friend who works as a high-level publisher. The publisher dismisses the manuscript, and his secretary reveals that, rather than being a personal friend, Henry merely worked in Angus' office as a janitor.

Henry carries around a bundle of notebooks that he refers to as his "Confession," a work that details aspects of his mysterious past that he one day hopes to publish when he and the world are ready for them. Henry's hedonistic antics cause all manner of turns in the lives of Simon's family, not least of which is impregnating Fay, Simon's sister. Henry and Fay get married. After Fay uploads verses from Simon's poem to the Internet, it inspires worldwide controversy, attracting adoration from those who appreciate Simon as a transgressive genius and condemnation from conservative politicians who see his work as degeneracy. Excited by the potential to profit off of the poem, Angus approaches Simon again and offers him $100,000 up front and a 70/30 royalty split to publish it.

Henry is distraught about becoming a father, worried that the time spent working a job to support his family will conflict with his passions as a writer. Simon offers to bring the manuscript of the Confession to Angus and require that he will only sign over the rights to his own poem if Henry's work is published as well. After finally reading Henry's life's work, Simon dislikes it, but brings it to Angus as promised. Angus hates the Confession, calls Henry a "scoundrel" for writing it, and refuses to publish it. Simon reminds him that he also disliked his poem until it became popular, questioning his artistic integrity. Angus still refuses, even when Simon offers to take a smaller cut of his poem's royalties.

As Fay gives birth to a son, Simon notifies Henry of Angus' refusal, and reveals that he signed the contract anyway. Henry questions why Simon would break his promise; Simon says that he made the promise before reading the Confession, and that Henry's work is unfit to publish. The two men fight and eventually part ways, as Henry insists that Simon wouldn't have written anything without his guidance.

A few years pass. As Henry sinks to a life of drinking in low-life bars, Simon becomes famous and world-renowned for his writing and grows reclusive. Henry, trying to save an underage girl abused by her stepfather, kills the man. Henry and Fay's young son runs away to track down Simon, who is living secretively in a new apartment with Angus' secretary. The boy brings Simon back to Henry. Simon gives Henry his passport; on the day that Simon is due to fly to Stockholm to accept the Nobel Prize in Literature, Henry boards the flight instead and flees the country, passing himself off as Simon.

Henry Fool was directed, written, co-produced and composed by Hal Hartley.[2] He began writing the project in the 1980s, and spent years developing and fine-tuning it.[3] Significant writing took place in 1995, and Hartley realized that Henry would be the story's main character, rather than Simon.[4] Hartley wanted the story to incorporate current events, adding elements such as Congressional races and Internet censorship.[5]

The characters of Henry and Simon were partly inspired by the relationship between writers James Joyce and Samuel Beckett.[2] Goethe's Faust was also an inspiration for the film,[2][3] with Hartley comparing Henry to Mephistopheles.[2][6] Another inspiration for Henry was John Falstaff,[4][6] while Hartley compared Simon with Kaspar Hauser.[2] Hartley included gross-out humor, such as vomiting,[7] because he wanted the film to discuss serious topics in a non-academic atmosphere: "I didn't want Henry and Simon to be wearing tweed coats and have Ph.D.s. They needed to be, to a certain degree, disgusting".[8] He said about Henry, "I didn't want it to be too easy to like him. I mean, he's so bombastic, so funny and disgusting -- it's easy just to fall in love with this man. So he really had to have been in prison for something inexcusable".[2] Hartley considered Henry a compelling character because "we never know if he is lying or not".[8]

Hartley chose not to show Simon's poem to the viewer, believing that films about artists "always get it wrong when they show the art. And they let the audience participate in the judgment of the art, whether the art is good or bad". He said that "for the most part, the artistic worth of Simon's poem is not the issue. The issue is the manner in which Simon's life changes as a result of knowing Henry and how that change begins to threaten Henry".[2] The contents of Henry's confession are not specifically discussed either, although Hartley said they are "probably unbelievably pretentious".[8]

Henry Fool marked the film debuts of Thomas Jay Ryan,[4][9] James Urbaniak,[10] and Liam Aiken.[11] Ryan and Urbaniak were both stage actors.[12][13] Ryan was cast after Hartley saw him in a play by Richard Foreman called My Head Was a Sledgehammer. Ryan said that Hartley wanted an actor "larger than life, likable, but also patently absurd".[9] Urbaniak had previously appeared in short films made by Hartley.[4] Maria Porter was cast at the suggestion of Ryan, who went to college with her.[6] The role of Ned was narrowed down to three boys, and Aiken won the part because of his natural demeanor.[6]

The start of filming was delayed several times because of financial setbacks, and Ryan had a year and a half to discuss his character with Hartley. Henry's confession is briefly glimpsed in the film, with Ryan's handwriting. Months before the start of production, Hartley gave him a notebook to write in, so it would be ready for filming.[6] The film was produced on a budget of $900,000,[14] a large portion of which went to the rental of camera and sound equipment.[15] Filming took place in 1997, and the shoot lasted three or four weeks.[4][6] Parker Posey filmed her scenes in four days.[16]

Based on 28 reviews collected by the film review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, 89% of critics gave Henry Fool a positive review, with an average rating of 7.42/10.[17] Leonard Maltin gives the film two and a half stars, saying Hartley "just misses the mark".[18]