Henry Fool

Henry Fool is a 1997 American black comedy-drama film written, produced and directed by Hal Hartley, featuring Thomas Jay Ryan, James Urbaniak, and Parker Posey. Set like previous Hartley films in less affluent parts of Long Island, it recounts how the lives of a fatherless family are overturned by a mysterious outsider and how, as in The Unbelievable Truth, expectation and reality again conflict. The film won the best screenplay award at the 1998 Cannes Film Festival. A sequel, titled Fay Grim, was released in 2006. Another sequel, titled Ned Rifle, was released in 2014. Plot Socially inept garbage-man Simon Grim is befriended by Henry Fool, a witty rogue and untalented novelist just released from seven years in jail for attempting sex with an underage girl. Henry opens the world of literature to Simon, and inspires him to write "the great American poem." Simon struggles to get his work recognized, and it is often dismissed as pornographic and scatological, but Henry continues to push and inspire Simon to get the poem published. Henry recommends that Simon submit his work to Angus, an old friend who works as a high-level publisher. The publisher dismisses the manuscript, and his secretary reveals that, rather than being a personal friend, Henry merely worked in Angus' office as a janitor. Henry carries around a bundle of notebooks that he refers to as his "Confession," a work that details aspects of his mysterious past that he one day hopes to publish when he and the world are ready for them. Henry's hedonistic antics cause all manner of turns in the lives of Simon's family, not least of which is impregnating Fay, Simon's sister. Henry and Fay get married. After Fay uploads verses from Simon's poem to the Internet, it inspires worldwide controversy, attracting adoration from those who appreciate Simon as a transgressive genius and condemnation from conservative politicians who see his work as degeneracy. Excited by the potential to profit off of the poem, Angus approaches Simon again and offers him $100,000 up front and a 70/30 royalty split to publish it.