Aedonerre I gave this film a 9 out of 10, because it was exactly what I expected it to be.

Invaderbank The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

Nayan Gough A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

Fleur Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

Kristofers Borovskis The most underrated movie I've seen...This week, I wanted to watch the best of the best movies that I haven't seen, and out of all the movies like "Se7en", "The Usual Suspects" and "The Green Mile", that are considered the best of the best, the only one worth the 10, is this little known indie film. There's just something special about this movie I cant describe. The acting is top notch, as well as writing, and the ending is ingenious. But, I do think some people will dislike this movie. Some, like me, will love it, some will find it bad but there is no way to give this movie less than 4/10.

MBunge It's pretentious and a bit too long, but writer/director Hal Hartley manages to get out of his own way enough to make Henry Fool a satisfactory excursion into the offbeat.Simon Grim (James Urbaniak) is an alienated and nearly mute garbage man. He lives with his aimlessly slutty sister (Parker Posey) and his burnt out husk of a mother (Maria Porter). Their quietly desperate lives are upended one day when Henry Fool (Thomas Jay Ryan) takes up residence in the dingy basement apartment in the Grim family home. Henry is obscene and impulsive, debonair and contemptuous. He's like a bipolar homeless man with a masters degree in English literature, someone who always comports himself as being much smarter than his circumstances.Henry is a writer and claims to have written a "confession" that will roil the world with its power and insight, but he won't let Simon read it. What Henry does do is inspire Simon to put his own thoughts to paper with the result being an epic poem of such profane beauty that everyone who encounters it must respond with either devotion or loathing. Henry guides Simon into cultivating his own talent in spite of the world's opposition, while falling in love with his sister and revealing more of a past that turns out not to be quite as high minded as Henry likes to put on.Eventually Simon takes on the life of Henry's dreams. Henry, however, falls down into Simon's old life until an act of either heroism or debauchery moves Simon to try and salvage what's left of his one-time mentor's existence.This is what you call a "character drama" where what the characters do is less important to enjoying the film than how they do it. What distinguishes Henry Fool from other such work is that it's really not much of a showcase for its cast. Thomas Jay Ryan is given a charismatic part to chew on, but the other actors either have little to do or, like James Urbaniak, they play characters of such limited scope that it never seems like they do much.No, what makes this urban yarn of frustrating reality work is its slow unfolding of a paradox. Simon Grim is a sub-ordinary man who meets the seemingly extraordinary Henry Fool and is led to being something more than he could have ever imagined. But that same transformation of Simon shows Henry to be nothing at all like what he appears. Simon becomes what Henry always presented himself as, and Henry is forced to abandon his dreams and become what Simon was. It's a very careful take down of intellectual pretension underscored by an admiration of real creative ability. And yes, a movie can attack pretension while being itself pretentious.Throw in cultural observations, some amusing and some overblown, along with a prescient understanding of what the internet was going to do to the publishing business, and you've got a diverting but slightly taxing motion picture.

gpadillo If Hal Hartley were never to make another film, he could easily go down as having created a genuine American Masterpiece with "Henry Fool." Hartley takes this material and stamps it with heart and soul and distance. It's like staring at a palette of beautiful colors - then stepping back to realize it's a bruise. Henry is never less than this astonishing. As Henry,Thomas Jay Ryan gives what is easily the best film debut I've seen in many years. None of the wimpy whispery-voiced drivel that passes for acting these days (from even some of our best screen actors) his performance practically pops off of the screen like a fart at a funeral. The rest of the cast - James Urbaniak, Parker Posey, Maria Porter, Kevin Corrigan, et al. - are on the same inspired level, but it's obvious why the film is named after Henry. I cannot wait to see this man in more. Obviously allegorical, "Henry Fool" fairly teems with its laundry list of symbolism both quaint and profound, easy and impossible. I found my cheeks hurting from the smile stretching across my face for much of the film. Other moments had my eyes welling with tears at the beauty – and pain – these oh, so deceptively simple lives toil through. This is not, obviously, a film for all audiences, there is something of the fairy tale here and while suspension of disbelief is required, it is also its own reward. Actually the characters, though larger than life, are so evenly and wondrously drawn as to become recognizable to all of us as ourselves or others in our own lives. Here we weigh out the seemingly unfair advantages we perceive "others" has having, the pronouncements of self-worth and desire for acceptance and understanding. Hartley's dialogue is equal to the visual aspects of his film: almost stagey (in the good sense), but with a direct honesty that many, unfortunately, will find offputting. His cast delivers these perfectly placed pronouncements with all the gravitas demanded of the situation - and sound natural doing so. It's a beautiful film to listen to. Aside from the brilliant storytelling, "Henry" is also beautiful to look at. Hartley's cameramen lens a Queenscape most unusual – one never quite feels he knows where it's taking place, despite obvious "Queens" clues. Every frame – from Henry's powerfully bizarre arrival to the last triumphant (and gloriously ambiguous) cell is a pleasure, a joy to watch. At its conclusion all I could say was "this was the best movie I've ever seen." Upon reflection, I realize it probably isn't, but at that moment (and each ensuing viewing) I recapture that same, precise feeling. That's what I want in a movie and Henry delivered.

kbayram First of all, the dominant structure of the film is about expressionist of some feelings behind the negative personality of the garbage man that he is not also aware of his potential. our main character henry fool is the main actor of garbage man's success,but the genius person must react the situations more quickly. the diaolg between henry and the nobel prize winner is breaking the walls between them as before they were teacher and student and after ýt turned the opposite way after that part of the movie. maybe ý have alotof feelings but my words are not enough. someone must watch it and after he must say something about it.