Regarding Henry

A ruthless and successful Manhattan lawyer is shot in the head during a robbery. He survives but loses his memory and part of the use of his body. As he learns to speak again he also learns what the man he used to be did to his family. Mike Nichols directed. The screenplay is by J. J. Abrams and it was his first writing credit. Harrison Ford leads, Annette Bening plays his wife, and Hans Zimmer wrote the score. The reviews split and leaned negative. Roger Ebert gave it two stars out of four and wrote that it aims without apology for easy emotional payoffs. Vincent Canby in The New York Times called it a sentimental urban fairy tale that worked neither as inspirational drama nor as social commentary. Variety defended it as a subtle emotional journey, impeccably orchestrated. It did well commercially. It opened in 800 theatres with 6.1 million dollars and reached 87.9 million worldwide against a 25 million budget. Annette Bening won the London Film Critics' Circle Newcomer of the Year for this and her other work that year. Who it is for: viewers who like nineties Hollywood emotional drama and Ford outside action. Who it is not for: anyone who resists being steered. The film builds a simple equation in which becoming a good person requires losing your memory.