You Should Really Consider: Regarding Henry (1991)

As a lover of fantastic tales set among god-like technology on alien planets, I gotta say it’s never fun unless there’s a good story with relatable characters. All anyone wants is a well-told tale; I just happen to like mine set on starships – which is just alike in dignity to stories set among angsty high schoolers, scheming socialites, or dramatic housewives. And to be honest, *all media is genre media.* Yeah, I get it, we mainly use “The G Word” for sci-fi, fantasy, and horror – the Big Nerd Trifecta – but of course, all storytelling is bound by specific and stylized forms even if it’s like, an ’80s movie (when you have 99 minutes to kill, you should watch Patrick H Willems superb video essay about what movie is the most “‘80s”).

Good storycraft is good storycraft regardless if it’s in space, employs wands, or if it merely takes place in our realm, depicting people whose lives are fairly ordinary – I guess I will have to talk about Ordinary People (1980) one day…
I’m not discounting the beauty and wonder of fantastical worlds, I’m just saying you don’t have to have one to be moved to tears. Game recognizes game.

To no surprise, this installation of “You Should Really Consider” is about a story set in our ordinary world about fairly ordinary people: 1991’s quiet masterpiece, Regarding Henry.

Regarding the Cast

Regarding Henry‘s story is a straightforward tale: a man has all the outward trappings of success but is empty inside, and by the end, he discovers a more fulfilling but less quantifiable form of success. This is one of humanity’s most ancient storytelling tropes (look at tales of ancient deities and biblical characters). It’s a story that will never get old because humans have not changed much over the past 10,000 years: we long for things, and when we get those things, we run the risk of losing our grip on what’s really valuable …a tale as old as time.

I would be remiss to not include the storytelling powerhouses at play in this film: Harrison Ford as Henry, Annette Benning as wife Sarah, and a swath of character actors: Bruce Altman as Henry’s best friend, Robin Bartlett as Sarah’s only confidant, Bill Nunn as Henry’s physical therapist, plus Elizabeth Wilson, Donald Moffat, James Rebhorn…you have no idea who I’m talking about do you? Y’all need to watch more ’70s, ’80s, and ’90s cinema.

While this movie has a devastating roster of established and to-be-established talent. The film takes an understated hand, allowing the story to show and not tell, playing it straight and using the existing drama to move the narrative. I think this is part of the reason you likely haven’t heard of this movie, it’s very well made but never flashy. The reasoning makes sense: it’s a very high concept premise already, best to not overwhelm the audience. Also having a movie be naturalistic and less dramatic is a valid storytelling choice. It’s easier to bring the “Cinematic Flash” to stories of space-faring heroes in galaxies far, far away. Regarding Henry lacks the powerful speechifying, dramatic gestures or music that’s used to indicate, “This is an important movie.”

Regarding Henry Turner

Henry Turner is a high-powered lawyer, a power-suited mover and shaker who has a palatial apartment in Manhattan (and across the street from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, very impressive) with a wife, a kid, and a boat – all the trappings of modern success. Warmth and compassion are not part of the package for Henry, there is no need for them in the pursuit of things and status. Henry’s wife Sarah is equally complicit in this gilded, empty lifestyle. Their daughter (Mikki Allen) is a lonely, withdrawn tween who is adrift thanks to Henry and Sara’s cold, performative parenting, but of course, it’s her fault she doesn’t follow the rules. Henry exists in a universe of rules that conveniently orbits around him, as it naturally ought to. Who could ask for anything more?

This well-oiled universe of privilege and power is greased by Henry’s seeming inexhaustible capacity to have an answer for anything, wielding sensitivity as a tool for manipulation. In our opening scene, we watch Henry use great care and intelligence to convince a jury to deny a malpractice claim by a hospital patient who is disabled from medical negligence; all in a day’s work. Unlike contemporary early 21st century’s hollow and powerful well-to-do’s such as Tony Soprano, Don Draper, or Walter White, Henry is not eaten up by his demons; his world fits like a glove (and when it doesn’t, best be sure you’ll get an earful about it). Today, we’d call him a victim/perpetrator of Toxic Masculinity, hypnotized by his bedazzled shackles of material, power, and pride – all of it supported by his incredible ability to have an answer for everything. Back in 1991, however, Henry was a “Master of the Universe” at the height of his powers, decreeing all that is and is not important.

What is unique about Regarding Henry is the nature of this hero’s journey into soulful kindness. Henry does not lose a parent, spouse, or child. He is not laid off, nor does he lose “The Big Promotion” to a rival. Instead, Henry’s sorta dies. Early in the film, Henry winds up in a bodega during a stick-up (a scene with a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it role for a young John Leguizamo), leading to Henry being shot in the chest and head. He barely survives but suffers severe brain damage: he wakes up having lost his ability to speak and his ability to move; his memories, his personality, all of it gone. Effectively, Henry Turner is no more. In his place, a new man has been born, starting completely from scratch, like an infant; a man who becomes defined by curiosity, vulnerability, uncertainty, and kindness – everything Henry Turner, Master of the Universe, wasn’t. This new Henry must make sense of himself and his place in the world. Who is he? What does he want? What truly matters to him?

Regarding Sarah Turner

Along with Henry on this journey into living a gentler, softer way is his wife, Sarah, who is faced with the shock of seeing her high-flying husband practically comatose, facing a very long rehabilitation. Removed from the lifestyle that her husband’s capacities afforded, Sarah has to find new mooring, all while navigating friendships that are quietly treacherous and redefining what is best for her family. Her transformation is just as remarkable, though less attention-grabbing as Henry’s.

I cannot stress enough how incredible of a performance Harrison Ford delivers in dual roles: old Henry is a vain silver-tongued acolyte of 80’s materialistic success, while new Henry is slow-talking, compassionate, and deliberate. We don’t spend a lot of time with jerk Henry, but Harrison Ford leaves a powerful impression with a handful of scenes all of them funny in a dark and understated way. Annette Benning has the harder role of pulling off a similar transformation while being the same person, selling her initial cold flashiness, the shock of Henry’s near-death experience, then navigating a sea of confusion as she realizes her only love is no longer who he was, and that the gilded lake of her life has always been swimming with sharks. None of this could be possible without such a well-written script or phenomenal direction.

Regarding the Filmmakers

Regarding Henry was directed by directorial titan Mike Nichols, as in The Graduate (1967) and The Birdcage (1996). Its script was penned by some hotshot kid named Jeffery Abrams, but I hear nowadays he likes to go by, let me check my notes…um, “J.J.”…so I guess that’d be “J.J. Abrams”? Maybe you’ve heard of him? (He has a cameo in the film as a delivery guy).

The composer, can you believe it, was Hans Zimmer, and I swear on a stack of Bibles, there is a musical homage to Vangelis’ Blade Runner (1982) soundtrack in the opening shot. In terms of the people in front of and behind the camera, this production was firing on all cylinders. Regarding Henry is one of those reminders that filmmaking is a craft, and it’s a pleasure to watch a movie that may not be flashy, but really well done.

Regarding the Take-Away

Being an early 1990s drama, Regarding Henry isn’t as flashy as it would be if it were made today, lacking the high-concept pizzazz of a sprawling space opera, a quest among dragons and wizards, or the harsh allure of a Swords and Sandals epic. It belongs in the genre of quiet character drama where harsh people grow, deepen, and soften, in the same vein as Good Will Hunting (1997). Nichols, Abrams, Ford, Benning, and co. just want to tell this story and tell it well. This film doesn’t announce its cleverness, if anything it underplays it. Regarding Henry is about Henry and Sara rediscovering in very different ways who they are and what they want. The Turners reject the wealth, status, and power wrapped in a chilly soullessness for a smaller, warmer life, a life filled with family, honesty, and love.