fay grim be the continuation of a story begin ten year earlier with hartley henry fool . i haven not see the early film and and i do not know if that a good thing or not . i can only regard the current film on it own merit . for most people and hal hartley style of film making be something that you either like or you do not . his combination of action and drama and absurdity and dry and ironic humour really resonate with me and and fay grim be no exception . it have an air of sharply write intelligent parody that have myself and many in the melbourne international film festival audience laugh out loud . for the first half of the film it be relentless and deliver with deadpan straightness . it a style of humour sadly lack in cinema and a welcome relief to the mindless teen comedy that hollywood pump out like pancake . during the second half of the film and the humour start to thin a the film morphs into an international espionage or conspiracy thriller . whether this be hartley intention or whether he run out of idea be not clear and but i think a bit of edit or re write to cut fifteen minute off the film would have maintain the film original momentum . the performance be generally good and particularly parker posey and jeff goldblum and who have the most screen time . saffron burrow and james urbaniak and carl montgomery and elina löwensohn all play good support role . the film visuals be nice ( set in new york and paris and berlin and istanbul ) and the music ( also by hartley ) be good without be intrusive . the film be well write and i enjoy this it immensely . if you like hartley early work and you will probably like this .