by Melissa Strong, Contributor

Harrison Ford’s most beloved roles involve running – running toward bioengineered humanoids and away from Imperial Star Destroyers, Nazis, and Tommy Lee Jones. In Regarding Henry (1991), he mostly stays still. The drama offers a side of Ford you may not have seen before, and it gave him a crack at a more emotionally complex role. As Henry Turner, Ford plays a douchey Manhattan attorney whose personality and relationships with his wife (Annette Bening) and tween daughter (Mikki Allen) improve after he experiences brain damage.

Written by J.J. Abrams and directed by Mike Nichols, Regarding Henry received praise for its acting and criticism for its heavy-handedness. The movie opened in the summer of ‘91, facing competition from grittier and edgier dramas (Boyz in the Hood and Thelma and Louise), comedies (City Slickers and Hot Shots!), and action flicks of the sort in which Ford often stars (Terminator 2: Judgment Day and Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves). I missed Regarding Henry in the theater, as I was between eighth and ninth grade and not a member of its target audience. But I saw it on TV or VHS not long after and thought it was pretty good. Ford’s turn as MovieJawn’s star of the month seemed like a good time to revisit it.

Regarding Henry is not a great movie, but it’s worth a watch for fans of Ford. It also will interest lovers of heartwarming predictability as well as cinephiles curious about turn-of-the-millennium American culture, including baggy, pleated pants that flattered no wearer. As a bonus, Regarding Henry offers a number of unintended easter eggs. But the main appeal is the novelty of seeing Ford portray an antagonist, albeit one who transforms into a sympathetic character.

We are meant to dislike Henry, a brusque, detached spouse and parent who cares only for work and winning. The film opens in the courtroom with Henry successfully defending a hospital in a malpractice suit, after which he and his wife attend a lavish housewarming party with their circle of shallow socialites. Regarding Henry vaguely criticizes the worship of capitalism in moments like these. However, it is more concerned with the appeal of second chances and the triumph of the human spirit. These features still shine through. However, you may need to overlook the movie’s troubling yet historically accurate treatment of race and ethnicity along with some casual sexism. 

After the housewarming, Henry goes out to avoid his wife/buy cigarettes at a bodega, where a Hispanic person randomly shoots him in the head. This plot development nods to George H. W. Bush’s dog-whistle prison furlough attack ads in the 1988 presidential election, and the racism and fear that made the ads effective. Next, Regarding Henry introduces a Magical Negro – that is, a Black stock character who exists to help a white character – in Bradley (Bill Nunn). An upbeat taskmaster of a physical therapist, Bradley transforms his immobile and unresponsive patient into one who can walk and talk again.

This news is complicated, even distressing, for his wife and daughter. Post-accident Henry cannot remember how badly he sucked before, or that he and a coworker (Rebecca Miller) had an ongoing affair, or that he planned to leave his marriage. But what an opportunity for Henry to reevaluate his personality, his relationships, his priorities, his life! Henry expresses confusion and displeasure as he learns who he used to be. The new Henry values kindness and integrity, prefers family time to social climbing, and chooses justice over profit. Rosella (Aida Linares), the Turners’ domestic worker, is the first to say what everyone is thinking: “I like you much better now.”

Regarding Henry is at its best when Henry uses his second chance at life in the ways most people would hope to: as an opportunity to spend less time at work and more with loved ones, and to be a better parent, spouse, and human. Bening’s performance moved me as her character realizes that she loves the person Henry has become in spite of who he was before. That said, the movie oversimplifies complex situations, emotions, and relationships. Regarding Henry “aims without apology for easy emotional payoffs,” as the great film critic Roger Ebert wrote in his 1991 review.

But now, decades later, we can watch Regarding Henry ironically and in hindsight. Remember those unintended easter eggs? Watch for John Leguizamo as the bodega shooter. Consider the coincidence of Bening’s character sharing the same first name as Linda Hamilton’s in T2 and Terminator. Debate whether Sarah and Henry’s daughter Rachel is infantilized or parentified, or play a drinking game where you take a shot each time Rachel appears with a sweater or sweatshirt tied around her waist. Once you’re tipsy, hypothesize why. Or find clues revealing the movie’s casual sexism, including use of a Wallis Simpson-like character to represent the evils of high-society affluence and embodying the late-twentieth-century stereotype of the mannish career woman in Henry’s affair partner.

Regarding Henry may stumble through the intersection of relationships, gender, work, and identity, but it does criticize a kind of toxic masculinity in “Before” Henry. Sniff carefully and you will catch a whiff of Patrick Bateman in Henry Turner – American Psycho was published in ‘91. “After” Henry poses an alternative to this kind of masculinity, though. In the end, Regarding Henry is a movie very much of its time that is also worth watching.