Movie – Regarding Henry

Movie – Regarding Henry

Score : 8/10 

Year : 1991

Director:  Mike Nichols

Cinematography: Giueseppe Rotunno

Music: Hans Zimmer ; Mozart ; Sting. Read (IMDB)

Country: USA

Language: English 

Duration: 1h48

Writers: J.J. Abrams 
Full cast & team (IMDB)

Henry Turner, an ambitious, rich lawyer but emotionally detached father and spouse. He survives a shooting but has to relearn speech and reading, as well as to regain mobility, and to redefine his personality as well as his relationships. 


Regarding Henry explores the possible outcome of a brain injury in regards to a person's life views, personality traits and tastes. We see Harrison Ford in a different role, out of his comfort zone of an action figure (Han Solo in Star Wars, Indian Jones, cops etc), in a moving role where he convinces that he does suffer from amnesia, becoming a new person and has to pass through all those awkward portions of refining who he is, what he likes to eat, how he interacts with others.

Bill Nunn as Bradley, Henry's physiotherapist is an ambivalent role ; on the one hand, he is a good therapist, bringing humanity and comic relief to an otherwise dry drama, but on the other hand is seen calling women 'hot', which is cringey but has to be taken into a context of 1991's cinema. 

Dialogues are well written, though they don't shine in exceptional brilliance. The movie has a good pace and use of music, which is kept to a minimum for drama's sake. 

There is a positive touch of realism when Sarah Tuner cries and her makeup actually runs, which gains this movie a kudo. 

Overall acting is good and convincing ; Regarding Henry is emotionally moving in several moments. 
Editing is nice, especially to show passage of time. 

Overall, Regarding Henry is a different and entertaining movie. It doesn't rely on sensationalism or big explosions or anything like that, but rather on human interaction and experience. 

Casting: 
Harrison Ford, Annette Bening, Rebecca Miller, Donald Moffat, Bruce Altman, Bill Nunn, Robin Bartlett, et al. 

Below is a tiny spoiler section regarding PG13 material. 
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The tiny spoiler section, Of note, this is a PG13 movie, for the following reasons:
Brief violence (the shooting, about 10 or so minutes into the movie - you'll see it coming in a store) ; the first scenes in hospital show the ER hallway with a few bruised and bloodied people waiting for their turn. 
Sexual implications (including when a character in cinema during a porno movie, nothing shown, only heard in a brief scene).