I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

Simon Grim (James Urbaniak) is a shy awkward garbage worker. He lives with his loud bossy sister Fay (Parker Posey) and mother. He is befriended by frustrated writer Henry Fool (Thomas Jay Ryan) who gives him a notebook. Simon gets beaten up. Henry sleeps with both Fay and their mother. While Henry's writing is rejected, Simon's writing becomes celebrated.James Urbaniak is a fine quiet weirdo and Parker Posey is hilariously loud. "Mom! Simon's got a broken rib..." She makes Hal Hartley's words sing. The weak point is Thomas Jay Ryan. Henry Fool is a crazy character. He needs to be played by a more charismatic actor with a wild energy. Ryan doesn't have a big enough screen presence. Also Hartley's quiet oddball manneristic style keeps the energy low. There are bit moments of utter genius writing but there are not enough to make the whole great.

I wasn't going to review this one, because I only watched/own these films because I'm an avid Goldblum fan. Yeah, I know he's not in Henry Fool, but he IS in Fay Grim, and because Fay Grim makes no sense WHATsoever without having first watched Henry Fool, I have them both.Having started out that way, Henry Fool was, for me, something to "get through" in order to get to the "good stuff" with Jeff.Boy, was I surprised. Henry Fool is a brilliant piece of work. I was shocked, frankly. Now, I can't stop telling my friends about it. This is thoughtful, even if it is a bit dialog-heavy. It is fun, even as it takes itself seriously. It appears superficially fun and quirky, even as it surreptitiously broadens its depth. It entertains, even as it teaches us to shoot for the stars.Henry appears to follow his own advice - he appears to shoot for the stars, when all the while, he seems to be buying into his own con...or does he? This film is awesomely quirky, but there is substance beneath the idiosyncratic screenplay. This has become one of my new favorites. However, you can't fully appreciate the depth of the deceit without following this one up with a good strong dose of Fay Grim. Check it out, or lose out on a GREAT ending to this film.I would recommend this for just about anyone who likes intrigues, livid dramas, and/or Parker Posey. I have to say this is one of her best performances. She's a NUT in this! It rates an 8.4/10 from...the Fiend :.

Hartley is a great observer, and Henry Fool is a solid proof of it. A film which is more real than reality itself. It is so cold that it gets warm, so slow that is seems fast(like all his cinema Hartley drawed one of the most interesting characters ever seen on a screen, an heterogenic rebel called Henry Fool. I felt deeply touched when I saw how the starting shyness of Urbaniak turns into a stable and strong self-security, and the collateral effect which causes around him. I'd like to remark the emotional load contained in the soundtrack, which I'm sure you know it is composed and partially played by Hartley itself. Minimalism is a word very attached to Hartley, but the real magic resides in the wise usage of it. I still haven't seen The Book of Life, because Europe doesn't know much about Hal (I love and comprenhend him so much...)

It has been quite a while since I've seen that film, yet it has stayed with me. This is one of the better examples of Hal Hartley's peculiar genius, and an example of why character development is so important. What Anton Chekhov was to literature, Hal Hartley has accomplished on film, even making some of the most detestable characters sympathetic on some level while not ignoring their glaring flaws. The ending, which I will leave to you to experience, was easily one of the most subtly and intelligently done I've ever seen, and mainstream Hollywood would do well to learn from this and others of his films.