19 lines
2.7 KiB
Plaintext
19 lines
2.7 KiB
Plaintext
it is often said by his fans that hal hartley movies are an acquired taste .
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indeed .
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while perhaps less dangerous than tequila shooters or bungee-jumping , they require no less amount of physical stamina and concentration .
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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 .
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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 .
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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 .
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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 .
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these story elements result in climaxes both inevitable and unpredictable ; the teacher-student relationship formed between henry and simon eventually reverses itself .
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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 . . .
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( which is key to the conclusion's said ambiguity ) .
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the performances by the three leads are abrasive at first , self-consciously " quirky " ; the introductory scenes are a chore .
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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 .
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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 .
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( shades of film school . . . )
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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 .
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how refreshing to see a movie this long in 1998 devoted entirely to character .
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and unless i nodded off , not a single building exploded .
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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 .
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