This 1991 film is one of the great ones that I will drop everything to watch when I run across it on TV--even when there are commercials involved. Harrison Ford gives the performance of his life and Annette Bening proves that she's worth so many Oscar nominations. Add on JJ Abrams as writer and Mike Nichols directing, and it all comes together in one of those cinema packages that's about as close to perfect as it can get.
What is most beautiful about this story is the observations about what makes us who we are. Ford's character, Henry, begins the film as, frankly, a real SOB. A lawyer who you'd never want to meet unless he was fighting for you. Arrogant, cocky, workaholic, and not great father, he still seems to have the perfect and wonderful high-society life that many people dream of--successful career where he is at the top of his game, a huge apartment, beautiful wife, smart daughter.
But who is he really? In the first moments of the film, Henry is shot when he walks in on a convenience store robbery in progress. The injuries are so serious that he basically has a stroke and loses everything from his memories to his ability to talk and walk. He is starting from scratch.
"You have to be very carefully taught," the song says, and Henry seems to be proof of that. Stripped of the "work ethic" that was pounded into him by his father, and freed from all the other garbage he has learned along the way, Henry is a totally different person.
The best word I can find for this new Henry is "guileless". Once he has regained the ability to live a normal life, he has to figure out what "normal" is going to be. It's rather like, at five years old, meeting your adult self and realizing that he's a big old jerk.
And it also becomes crystal clear that many things about his glorious old life were simply illusion and delusion--lots of smoke and mirrors. It was all just moments from crashing down. People who claimed to be dear friends, not so much so. And none of it really worth trying to regain.
Henry realizes that he doesn't want to go back to being that person. But where do you go from that realization? If we are pondering our lives at all, we have all had those moments of needing clarity. Who am I? Why am I where I am, doing what I do? Where do I want it all to end up?
The fantastic advice Henry receives from his physical therapist, Bradley (wonderfully played by Bill Nunn), is good advice even for those of us who have not had to fight back against such astounding odds.
"Don't listen to nobody trying to tell you who you are," Bradly tells him. "You'll figure yourself out."
Putting a life together from the barest of structure would be overwhelming. Reinventing yourself, no less daunting. But when there are true friends and people around determined to support and love every incarnation of you, it becomes a bit easier.
"Regarding Henry" fills up something deep inside my soul that wants to believe that deep down we are all good and loving. That everyone has the potential to change and be redeemed. This film makes me feel so warm and fuzzy, I don't even need chocolate. And that's the biggest compliment I could ever give.
For more info, check out: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0102768/maindetails
PS Watch for cameo moments from JJ Abrams as the grocery delivery boy and John Leguizamo as the thief who shoots Henry at the very beginning (and says he got hate mail from Ford fans for shotting him).
No comments:
Post a Comment