Fay Grim (2006)
Country: US/GER/FR
Technical: col 118m
Director: Hal Hartley
Cast: Parker Posey, James Urbaniak, Jeff Goldblum, Elina Löwensohn, Saffron Burrows
Synopsis:
The widow of Henry Fool (qv.) is contacted by the CIA concerning a collection of journals he had written, but which were never published. It seems that encoded within them is politically sensitive information regarding the location of missile bases, and Fay finds herself on a mission to Paris and going rogue in Istanbul before the matter is resolved.
Review:
Pointless to synopsize, because it is all MacGuffin, Hartley's bigger than normal-budget espionage comedy founders on its own anodyne complexities. The use of Dutch angles throughout becomes an irritation, telephone conversations are ponderously edited, and action sequences reduced to freeze frames. All the while we are supposed to believe that Fay is still somehow in love with her husband, a splenetic low-life in custody with a terrorist organisation, when there is more chemistry between her and his air hostess old flame. An escape into the sunset with her might have been preferable to the contrived dénouement we get instead (actually a replay from Simple Men). Fortunately Posey is enjoyable company, playing it very much like Kate Hepburn in screwball mode, though it would be hard to imagine the mobile phone on vibrate gag in Bringing Up Baby.
Country: US/GER/FR
Technical: col 118m
Director: Hal Hartley
Cast: Parker Posey, James Urbaniak, Jeff Goldblum, Elina Löwensohn, Saffron Burrows
Synopsis:
The widow of Henry Fool (qv.) is contacted by the CIA concerning a collection of journals he had written, but which were never published. It seems that encoded within them is politically sensitive information regarding the location of missile bases, and Fay finds herself on a mission to Paris and going rogue in Istanbul before the matter is resolved.
Review:
Pointless to synopsize, because it is all MacGuffin, Hartley's bigger than normal-budget espionage comedy founders on its own anodyne complexities. The use of Dutch angles throughout becomes an irritation, telephone conversations are ponderously edited, and action sequences reduced to freeze frames. All the while we are supposed to believe that Fay is still somehow in love with her husband, a splenetic low-life in custody with a terrorist organisation, when there is more chemistry between her and his air hostess old flame. An escape into the sunset with her might have been preferable to the contrived dénouement we get instead (actually a replay from Simple Men). Fortunately Posey is enjoyable company, playing it very much like Kate Hepburn in screwball mode, though it would be hard to imagine the mobile phone on vibrate gag in Bringing Up Baby.
Country: US/GER/FR
Technical: col 118m
Director: Hal Hartley
Cast: Parker Posey, James Urbaniak, Jeff Goldblum, Elina Löwensohn, Saffron Burrows
Synopsis:
The widow of Henry Fool (qv.) is contacted by the CIA concerning a collection of journals he had written, but which were never published. It seems that encoded within them is politically sensitive information regarding the location of missile bases, and Fay finds herself on a mission to Paris and going rogue in Istanbul before the matter is resolved.
Review:
Pointless to synopsize, because it is all MacGuffin, Hartley's bigger than normal-budget espionage comedy founders on its own anodyne complexities. The use of Dutch angles throughout becomes an irritation, telephone conversations are ponderously edited, and action sequences reduced to freeze frames. All the while we are supposed to believe that Fay is still somehow in love with her husband, a splenetic low-life in custody with a terrorist organisation, when there is more chemistry between her and his air hostess old flame. An escape into the sunset with her might have been preferable to the contrived dénouement we get instead (actually a replay from Simple Men). Fortunately Posey is enjoyable company, playing it very much like Kate Hepburn in screwball mode, though it would be hard to imagine the mobile phone on vibrate gag in Bringing Up Baby.