Fay Grim, a single Mom from Woodside, Queens, is afraid her 14 year old son, Ned, will grow up to be like his father, Henry, who has been missing for seven years. Fay's brother Simon is serving ten years in prison for aiding in Henry's escape from the law. In the quiet of his cell, Simon has had time to think about the tumultuous years of Henry's presence among them. He has come to suspect that Henry was not the man he appeared to be. His suspicions are validated when the CIA asks Fay to travel to Paris to retrieve Henry's property. Her mission turns into a sprawling con-game, pitching Fay deep into a world of international espionage. - skip ad - Genres: Action/Adventure, Thriller and Sequel Running Time: 1 hr. 58 min. Release Date: May 18th, 2007 (limited) MPAA Rating: R for language and some sexuality. Distributor: Magnolia Pictures Cast And Credits Starring: Parker Posey, Thomas Jay Ryan, James Urbaniak, Jeff Goldblum, Liam Aiken Directed by: Hal Hartley Produced by: Ted Hope, Todd Wagner, Mark Cuban

Imagine a serio-comic "Syriana" and it would probably look and sound a lot like "Fay Grim," Hal Hartley's wildly ambitious sequel to 1998's "Henry Fool," widely regarded to be one of his best films.

Returning to those characters almost a decade later, Hartley is a man with a lot to say about what's going on in the world these days, and while the trademark irreverence is very much intact, his venture into a much broader, international landscape proves more admirable than rewarding.

Fans will undoubtedly still be up for the ride, ensuring that boxoffice-wise, the Magnolia Pictures release shouldn't be a grim reaper.

Where the previous film centered around Thomas J. Ryan's Henry Fool character, this one focuses on his abandoned wife, Fay Grim (a delightfully sassy Parker Posey), who's still living in Woodside, Queens, raising their son, Ned (Liam Aiken), who is now 14, and, she fears, on the same self-destructive path as his peripatetic dad.

MeMeanwhile her famed garbage man-poet brother Simon (James Urbaniak), has been serving 10 years in prison for aiding and abetting Henry's escape (after killing a nasty neighbor), and has had plenty of time to reflect on the true meaning of Henry's many volumes of his scrawled "Confessions."

So has the CIA, which contends that the much sought-after notebooks contain information that seriously compromises the security of the United States.r>
ThThat is why the calculating Agent Fulbright (Jeff Goldblum) coerces Fay into traveling to Paris to retrieve the notebooks, leading to a wild goose chase that ends in Istanbul, where Fay ends up coming face to face with an infamous Afghan terrorist.

Hartley's kooky cosmopolitan caper can never be accused of slumming, but the shift from dry, offbeat wit to politically charged drama is a little jarring, to say the least; it's a bit like taking in Woody Allen's "Annie Hall" and having it morph mid-way through into "Shadows and Fog.

BuBut his cast handles the tonal fluctuations beautifully. Posey's got the quirky Hartley speech rhythms down cold, and between this and her appearance in Christopher Guest's "For Your Consideration," which also screened at this year's Toronto Festival, she delivers an expert comic one-two punch.

Goldblum, Aiken and Hartley regular Elina Lowensohn, as a former stewardess who proves to be one of Fay's key contacts, are also terrific, while Sarah Cawley Cabiya's hi-def cinematography, with all those expressionistic fun house angles, neatly sets the off-balance, anything-can-happen stage for all that is to follow.