“I’m single. Sort of.” —Fay Grim
Today’s quick review: Fay Grim. Fay Grim’s (Parker Posey) life is complicated. Her son Ned (Liam Aiken) is in trouble at school, her loutish husband Henry Fool (Thomas Jay Ryan) fled the country years ago, and her brother Simon (James Urbaniak) is in jail for helping him. Now, to top it all off, Agent Fulbright (Jeff Goldblum) of the CIA wants Fay’s help in retrieving Henry’s missing journals, which he believes contain important national secrets.
Fay Grim is a quirky independent comedy about a single mother caught up in an international web of intrigue, thanks to the exploits of her notorious husband. Fay Grim combines a unique premise, a convoluted plot, a wry sense of humor, and a jaunty directorial style to produce a fresh and entertaining experience. However, the complexity of the story, its madcap pacing, and the serious places it goes all put a damper on an otherwise upbeat comedy.
Fay Grim is the sequel to Henry Fool, another comedy from writer and director Hal Hartley. The sequel picks up roughly seven years after the end of the first film and spins its offbeat ending into an even stranger adventure involving international espionage. The leftover plot points from Henry Fool make Fay Grim’s story even more convoluted, but the sequel takes it all in stride, providing enough in the way of a recap to orient new viewers.
Fay Grim has a unique style of comedy that not even its predecessor fully shares. The movie presents itself with an overly serious, deadpan style that its characters and dialogue undercut at every opportunity. The vivid, fallible characters flounce around like they are in a soap opera, mundane conversational exchanges are delivered with even more gravitas than key plot points, and the script is chock full of dry wit and subtle, tongue-in-cheek humor.
The plot itself is contrived and convoluted to a comical degree. Fay, an ordinary single mother, gets wrapped up in the loose ends of her husband’s flight from the country. Pressured into helping the CIA retrieve her husband’s journals, Fay travles to France and lands in the middle of an international web of intrigue and deception. The many, many puzzle pieces do fit together, but they’re thrown at the viewer rapid-fire, more for comedic than dramatic effect.
Here is where Fay Grim starts to falter. The sheer volume of information required to follow the plot is overwhelming, and it gradually becomes apparent that all the schemes, lies, and competing agents in the hunt for Henry’s journals are not mere throwaways but actual parts of the plot. Eventually Fay Grim sheds its comedy entirely and becomes the spy thriller it was pretending to be all along, with a concomitant shift in tone to pure drama.
How much you get out of Fay Grim will depend heavily on what you want it to be. Those hoping for a breezy comedy may trip on the film’s complex plot and gradual shift to a heavier tone. Those hoping for a genuine spy thriller may not appreciate the film’s flippant treatment of its plot. But those willing to invest in Fay Grim’s plot and roll with the drama as it comes will be treated to a quirky comedy with subtle and skillfully delivered humor.
For a more elaborate comedic romp with similarly dry delivery, try The Grand Budapest Hotel. For a wry, espionage-based caper with a similar tonal trajectory, try Burn After Reading. For an understated comedy with a similar tone and more heart, try Sunshine Cleaning. For a black comedy with a convoluted plot and a bittersweet tone, try In Bruges.
6.3 out of 10 on IMDB. I give it a 7.0 for intriguing deadpan humor attached to a double-edged story and tone; your score will vary depending on your taste in comedy.