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Ten years after her husband, Henry Fool (Thomas Jay Ryan) fled the country in order to escape being arrested for murder, Fay Grim (Parker Posey) is approached by two CIA agents wanting her assistance in obtaining Henry's "confessions", a collection of notebooks which were previously believed to be the manuscript to a very poorly written novel, but in fact, might contain government secrets.

"Fay Grim" is the sequel to Hartley's 1997 film "Henry Fool". However, whereas "Henry Fool" could best be described as a pretentious art-house comedy/drama (and yes, I did like it very much), "Fay Grim" builds on many of the ideas that were set-up in "Henry Fool" and spins them into a tale of espionage and terrorism. In this film, Hartley uses the framework of a spy genre piece to answer many of the questions that were left unanswered at the end of "Henry Fool" - in particular, who is Henry, what was in his notebooks and why did he write them in the first place. For most of this film, Hartley does an excellent job of this, to the point where I actually started wondering if Hartley had all of these answers in mind when he wrote "Henry Fool". However, the film is let down by a weak and rather confusing ending (I'm still not really sure why Fay seemed to care so much for Bebe, a woman whom she meets along the way, at the end of the film, and I think that there were about three different (and contradictory) explanations given for the contents of the notebooks) which leaves things open for yet another sequel ("Simon Grim", perhaps). Having said all of that, if another film about Henry Fool and the Grims come out, then I will definitely be lining up to see it. Hal Hartley films are often described as an acquired taste, and although I have been able to find fault in all of his films that I have seen, I still have a taste for them and would gladly see more. Henry Fool is one of my favourite characters in a Hartley film and in movies in general, and any opportunity to see him again, would be worth it for me.

This is not a film for everyone. It is definitely an acquired taste. At the time I picked up this movie, I was not aware that it was a sequel and with that being said, if you have not seen the previous movie, you will be able to watch this one on its own. I was attracted to it by the fact that the leading lady Fay Grim is played by the queen of independent movie industry, Parker Posey. It is hard to say what genre this film belongs to because it is so quirky. Dialog is exaggerated by all characters so it is intended to be somewhat surreal. I was suprised to see Parker Posey reprise her comedic take on cell phone in vibrating mode inside her underware. She did that in another movie and it was interesting to see it again becuase it is just as funny, if not more. To me this is a movie about the fabulist Henry Fool, who in spite of being a writer, spy and a liar is loved by his wife, son and brother in law. He is a rebel that everyone loves to hate, one of those characters that everyone is drawn to by his charisma regardless of the fact that one can feel touble from afar. Film has dry humor and appears to drag at the moment, but cast is funny. Saffron Burrows is so beautiful and sexy one cannot take his eyes of her. Definitely not intended for wide audiences, but absolutely unique in its own way.