REGARDING HENRY. Directed by Mike Nichols; written by Jeffrey Abrams; produced by Scott Rudin and Mike Nichols for Paramount. Starring Harrison Ford, Annette Bening and Mikki Allen. Rated PG-13.
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Regarding Henry is a reasonably effective, but curiously lifeless, tearjerker. When all is said and done, it doesn't actually jerk too many tears.
The Henry of the title is an extra high-powered New York attorney who suffers from complete amnesia after getting shot during a hold-up about 10 minutes into the movie. After a supposedly difficult, but apparently not too tough, physical rehabilitation he returns his wife and daughter. He doesn't remember them, though, and they aren't sure they remember him correctly, either. This guy seems pretty nice, if a little slow on the uptake, whereas their erstwhile husband and father was a slick creep.
Ford does an exceptional acting job in Regarding Henry. As the original Henry, he's chillingly arrogant, insensitive and smooth. His new Henry, although perhaps just a tad too endearing, is a good portrayal of late-discovered innocence.
His movements and speech have a halting, overly-precise quality to them, as one would expect of someone who's only recently relearned those skills.
Bening, as Henry's wife Sarah, looks stunning, but the script doesn't really give her character any depth. Consequently, the movie poses more questions about her than it answers. Allen, as the daughter, is more effective with less screen time. It's easy to see how she feels, first about her old, uncaring dad, and then about her new one.
In spite of generally good performances, though, Regarding Henry doesn't ever quite click as a story. No small part of the problem is a nagging suspicion that few similar brain-injury cases result in such a complete, and rapid, recovery of faculties. Perhaps some oversimplification is necessary from a dramatic standpoint, but Regarding Henry goes overboard in that direction.
August 14, 1991