the 1997 low key indie dramedy henry fool would seemingly have be a secure choice of movie no one would bother to revisit for a sequel . a rumpled and dissipated drifter ( thomas jay ryan ) stroll into town . his anarchistic ranting and delusion inspire a nerdy garbage collector ( james urbaniak ) to write poem and while henry half heartedly try to boink the guy sister ( parker posey ) . a the poet prospers and henry decline . nothing special about any of the character or the story . a pitch for harold and maude ghost would have be quote higher odds of ever make it to a screen . but parker posey ain not the semi official queen of the indie for nothing . so when writer or director hal hartley come up with a new incarnation for his cast and a film be bear . though we catch up with the same character many year and theyre in a completely different sort of dark comedy while this one lace with espionage . henry may have be an international spy and possible double and or even triple and agent for year before meet the others . he either dead or in hide from agent and authority of many country . everyone want his rambling and incoherent journal which just may contain coded secret that could destabilize nation and economy . posey fay be either the wife he leave to go on the lam and or his widow and depend on who tell the truth . fay effort to find henry and or or the hotly contest journal include a globe trot gauntlet of multinational hit person and henchman at every turn . she never know who to believe or trust . nor do we . while herd these unlikely character into jason bourne or jack ryan territory and hartley script retain the ironic deadpan humor of their first appearance and steer clear of slapstick in expose them to physical menace . his sly lampoon of the paranoia and duplicity and musical chair alliance of today geopolitics start to crumble towards the end . even so and fan of the first movie will be pleasantly surprise by the novelty of hartley recycle method . ( 5/18/07 ) .