Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles
available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Henry Fool is a
1997 seriocomic film directed, written, and produced by Hal Hartley,
featuring Thomas Jay Ryan, James Urbaniak, and Parker Posey. As in The
Unbelievable Truth, an earlier Hartley film, expectation and reality
again conflict. The film won the best screenplay award at the 1998
Cannes Film Festival, where it was also nominated for the Golden Palm. A
sequel, titled Fay Grim, was released in 2007. Socially inept garbageman
Simon Grim is befriended by Henry Fool, a witty rogue, but untalented
novelist. Henry opens the world of literature to Simon, who then writes
"the great American poem." As Simon begins his ascent to the dizzying
heights of Nobel Prize-winning poet, Henry sinks to a life of drinking
in low-life bars. Henry's own attempts at fame result only in rejection
by the same publisher who contracts with Simon to distribute his work.
The friends fall out and lose touch until Henry's criminal past catches
up with him and needs Simon's help in fleeing the country.