I heard a review of Fay Grim on my local pbs radio station, which prompted me to go see it a couple of weeks later. I haven't seen other films by the director, and I wasn't expecting much. Overall Fay Grim is basically entertaining and smart, but no masterpiece, no gem. The plot has been covered in other reviews, so I'm just adding my two cents here.
FG has a sort of Harry Lime/The Third Man feeling. The main character, Fay Grim, is drawn into a murky world of intrigue, finds that people and things aren't who and what they seem, and is forced to re-evaluate her beliefs.
Tongue in cheek humor abounds in FG. The guy behind me couldn't stop chuckling. And it's left to the audience to catch on or not there is little of the 'okay, I'm setting up a joke here.' But the humor can get a bit thick, particularly at the beginning of the movie.
I like long movies, and I'm happy if a movie takes its time to develop. But FG gets a bit boring at times. Either there's choppy scenes of explication or we're getting in or out or going around in various vehicles or . . . I don't know. There was a lot of time spent on structure without much content. The key to the story is a set of notebooks that contain something - rantings or coded secrets - that a lot of people are interested in, so it seems. Had the director done more with this, life would have been splendid. But too soon we're told what's in the notebooks and then we're told why. This choice basically guts the mystery and motivation in the plot.
There is a nice international flavour, though it is hijacked by the post-9/11 myopia. Oddly, I don't think we ever hear anyone speak a language other than English, even though there are characters who are Swedish, French, Israeli, Arab, Afghani, Turk, and maybe German and Russian, and the action takes place in various non-English speaking places. This suggests rather lazy film making.
The movie finishes on a minor chord. This would be a plus if not for the nagging suspicion that this rawness is merely a bridge to a sequel. I mentioned above that Fay Grim has a number of similarities to The Third Man. If you haven't seen Carol Reed's noir thriller, then you may be in for a treat.
FG has a sort of Harry Lime/The Third Man feeling. The main character, Fay Grim, is drawn into a murky world of intrigue, finds that people and things aren't who and what they seem, and is forced to re-evaluate her beliefs.
Tongue in cheek humor abounds in FG. The guy behind me couldn't stop chuckling. And it's left to the audience to catch on or not there is little of the 'okay, I'm setting up a joke here.' But the humor can get a bit thick, particularly at the beginning of the movie.
I like long movies, and I'm happy if a movie takes its time to develop. But FG gets a bit boring at times. Either there's choppy scenes of explication or we're getting in or out or going around in various vehicles or . . . I don't know. There was a lot of time spent on structure without much content. The key to the story is a set of notebooks that contain something - rantings or coded secrets - that a lot of people are interested in, so it seems. Had the director done more with this, life would have been splendid. But too soon we're told what's in the notebooks and then we're told why. This choice basically guts the mystery and motivation in the plot.
There is a nice international flavour, though it is hijacked by the post-9/11 myopia. Oddly, I don't think we ever hear anyone speak a language other than English, even though there are characters who are Swedish, French, Israeli, Arab, Afghani, Turk, and maybe German and Russian, and the action takes place in various non-English speaking places. This suggests rather lazy film making.
The movie finishes on a minor chord. This would be a plus if not for the nagging suspicion that this rawness is merely a bridge to a sequel. I mentioned above that Fay Grim has a number of similarities to The Third Man. If you haven't seen Carol Reed's noir thriller, then you may be in for a treat.