Regarding Henry (1991)

Director: Mike Nichols

Cast: Harrison Ford, Annette Bening, Michael Haley

Synopsis: An unscrupulous lawyer’s memory is wiped clean when he is shot during a robbery.

Henry Turner (Harrison Ford – Ender’s Game, Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues) is one of those sharp lawyers with slicked back hair that Hollywood despises so much – when it’s not employing them to provide legal protection. At the beginning of the film we see him winning a court case on behalf of a hospital being sued for damages by an alcoholic patient whose condition is made worse because the hospital ignored him when he told them he was diabetic. The hospital denies this, and even though, as we later learn, Turner has evidence that the plaintiff did in fact advise the hospital of his condition, he celebrates a job well done when the decision goes his way.

Not a nice bloke then, so no tears are shed when Turner is shot in the head by a street punk holding up his corner store. Some unspecified time later, Turner emerges from a coma with his brain a clean slate which means not only does he have to learn to walk and talk and get to know his wife (Annette Bening – American Beauty, Danny Collins) and daughter all over again, but he also gets to develop into a really nice guy with floppy hair.

It’s not difficult to see why Ford took the role – he’s in practically every scene, and he has a nicely vulnerable air about him in his post-shooting scenes. The whole thing is pretty sanitised though. It’s difficult to believe a grown man’s frustrations at having to learn everything over again wouldn’t boil over into anger more than once, but Henry just maintains this calm, slightly bemused demeanour throughout which gives him a childlike aura. And although he has issues to resolve, the only real conflict is an artificially manufactured one that feels like it’s been shoe-horned into the storyline solely for that purpose.

(Reviewed 14th February 2012)