henry fool * * * ( out of four ) -a review by bill chambers , <a href= " mailto : wchamber@netcom . ca " >wchamber@netcom . ca</a> ( now with trivia ; film , dvd , ld reviews ; a section where you can recommend movies ; fabric softener ; and much more ! film freak central <a href= " http : //www . geocities . com/~billchambers " >http : //www . geocities . com/~billchambers</a> new address . new attitude . same crappy writing . ) it is often said by his fans that hal hartley movies are an acquired taste . indeed . while perhaps less dangerous than tequila shooters or bungee-jumping , they require no less amount of physical stamina and concentration . i felt rewarded at the end of henry fool ; this movie creeps up on you-at a slow 139 minutes , i mean creeps-and despite the final shot's ambiguity , i left completely satisfied . henry fool ( " used to have an ‘e' " ) arrives at garbageman simon grim's house , claims the vacant basement apartment , and almost instantly inspires simon ( urbaniak ) to take up writing-henry ( martin donovan look-alike ryan ) is an ex-convict , a once-great author who has been " exiled and marginalized " by the publishing community because of his criminal activity . simon's poetry turns him into a local sensation , as it causes mute women to sing , high-school girls to swoon , and councilmen to rile against its " pornographic " content . meanwhile , henry seduces both simon's dependent mother ( porter ) and immature sister ( sundance queen posey ) with philosophical babble ( which is by turns brilliant and inane ) and breathy animal lust . these story elements result in climaxes both inevitable and unpredictable ; the teacher-student relationship formed between henry and simon eventually reverses itself . henry fool is sprinkled with hartley-ian flourishes : simon drinks milk from " udderley's " ; the big teen hang-out is called " world of donuts " ; simon wears his garbageman's uniform throughout ; the editing style is decidedly elliptical . . . ( which is key to the conclusion's said ambiguity ) . the performances by the three leads are abrasive at first , self-consciously " quirky " ; the introductory scenes are a chore . these people do grow on you because they convey genuine passion , a belief in themselves , and because they have long-term goals ; henry and simon may drink a lot of budweiser and hang out on the streetcorner , but they aren't pop slackers . the story is rather classical : the tutor is a better talker than a doer , raised on books ; the timid tutee has innate talent his master only dreams of . ( shades of film school . . . ) the finished film is epic in its proportions for a story so small , and the final third does test one's patience , yet henry fool is tight , hardly excessive in its length . how refreshing to see a movie this long in 1998 devoted entirely to character . and unless i nodded off , not a single building exploded . this , hartley's seventh feature , is contemplative about " the artist " ; fortunately , we never get a sampling of simon's work , and it's a testament to the actors and the screenplay that by the end we can surmise what sort of thoughts would pour from these writers' pens . 
