MOVIE REVIEW : Disregarding ‘Henry’

“Regarding Henry” is a breath of stale air, an unconvincing rehabilitation of 1960s values for a 1990s audience that is bound and determined to take the easy way out whenever possible. Which is really too bad, because there are signs along the way that this could have been a less manipulative, more genuine exploration of what really matters in life instead of the slick Hollywood shuffle it turned out to be.

The Henry in question (Harrison Ford) starts the picture as a high-powered Manhattan attorney with an attractive wife (Annette Bening), an office with a view of the Chrysler Building and the ethics of Attila the Hun. Sleek and self-confident, Henry Turner is a heedless careerist whose idea of effective parenting is badgering his young daughter like a reluctant witness to a capital crime.

Headed out for a pack of cigarettes one night after a power dinner (didn’t you just know he smoked?), Henry suddenly becomes another urban statistic: For no apparent reason, a convenience store desperado shoots him in the head. When he awakes in a hospital room, his brain is back at square one: Like a blackboard that has been wiped totally clean, Henry remembers nothing and no one and his face, once a mask of command, is alternately bewildered, befuddled and just plain blank.

Ford, who was seriously interested in playing the Tom Hanks role in “Big” (a film that “Henry” has more than a little in common with), is more effective than you might imagine as a man with the mind of a child. Though a lot of his work, especially in the earlier stages of Henry’s recovery, is reactive rather than active, requiring him to depend more than usual on his face alone, Ford is not without resources. His Henry, who also bears a resemblance to Peter Sellers’ Chance in “Being There,” is poignant, amusing and always believable.

Equally effective, though in a less showy way, is Annette Bening. She has what is basically the generic spouse role, requiring her to be stalwart, loyal, loving and not much else. Not the most compelling combination of traits to play, but if Bening had not invested the role with as much commitment as she does, bringing a softness and vulnerability to her work that those who remember “The Grifters” will find impressive, this picture would have fallen apart a lot sooner than it does.

And fall apart is what “Regarding Henry” (citywide, rated PG-13) seems determined to do. In the film’s opening half hour, both Jeffrey Abrams’ script and Mike Nichols’ direction walk a very nervy line between comedy and anguish, keeping us nicely off balance as bursts of clever humor trade places with genuinely emotional moments.

Regrettably, as Henry’s rehabilitation proceeds and the film has to decide not only what kind of person he’s going to turn into but also the manner in which he turns, nerviness is suddenly in very short supply. Whenever a choice has to be made, Nichols, whose past work (“Working Girl,” “Postcards From the Edge,” etc.) has been more noted for commercial legerdemain than palpable emotion, can be counted on to make the safest, most sentimental one. When he is paired up with a script that is as fundamentally schematic and undemanding as Abrams’, which was much talked about in the business for reasons that are no longer apparent, the combination is bound to be fatal.

The problems first surface when Henry’s physical rehabilitation is placed in a hospital that is strictly from show business, populated by therapists (especially Bill Nunn as Bradley, the much beloved wise-beyond-his-station type) who are such fabulous human beings it almost seems worth the trouble of getting shot just to be able to meet them.

As Henry’s new personality takes shape, as he discards his work ethic and becomes, God help us, a better person, this tendency to go for the obvious emotions, of not cutting too deeply, becomes both clearer and clearer and harder and harder to take. While there is certainly nothing wrong with making a picture that says it’s important to stop and smell the flowers, is it really necessary to show Henry literally smelling the damn things to make the point? Slowly, inexorably, this film betrays its best intentions, abandoning its serious moments for a tone of half-baked fable before finally descending to the level of sentimental claptrap where a dog wagging its tale is used to key the audience’s responses.

As Henry and the difficulties he faces retreat further and further into Never-Never Land, whatever chances “Regarding Henry” had to be both entertaining and moving also disappear. By making the hurdles Henry has to pass over so unchallenging, the filmmakers have effectively robbed us of the chance to cheer when he succeeds, and that is a mistake no film can hope to recover from.

‘Regarding Henry’

Harrison Ford: Henry Turner

Annette Bening: Sarah Turner

Bill Nunn: Bradley

Mikki Allen: Rachel Turner

Donald Moffat: Charlie

Released by Paramount Pictures. Director Mike Nichols. Producers Scott Rudin, Mike Nichols. Executive producer Robert Greenhut. Screenplay Jeffrey Abrams. Cinematographer Giuseppe Rotunno. Editor Sam O’Steen. Costumes Ann Roth. Music Hans Zimmer. Production design Tony Walton. Running time: 1 hour, 47 minutes.

MPAA-rated PG-13.