oughly ten years after cementing his place as an alt-hero director - with “Henry Fool,” a tale about art and celebrity, and introducing us to garbage man Simon Grim and his horny sister Fay - Hal Hartley is back in the fray with Fay Grim. This quasi-sequel is part satire, part action flick and, unfortunately, part dull and frustrating.

Parker Posey is Fay, a suburban mom whose missing husband Henry Fool (Thomas Jay Ryan), has fled the country after accidentally killing another man. Her brother, the notorious poet Simon Grim (James Urbaniak), is serving 10 years in the pen for helping Henry escape. Her son has been expelled from his school.

Flash forward ten years. Faye learns that her inscrutably deranged Henry was a super spy of sorts, which leads to her being visited by two shady FBI grunts - Fulbright (a fast-talking Jeff Goldblum, doling out the movie's funniest dialogue) and assistant Fogg (Leo Fitzpatrick).

Through them, she learns her husband's diaries may hold the key to a number of state secrets, of which could blow the lid off of any number of international conspiracies, governmental manipulations and foreign policy scandals. The FBI wants Fay to retrieve the manuscripts. She decides to do it, but only if Simon gets released from prison.