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Wall Street Journal

‘Henry Johnson' Review: David Mamet's Dilemma

Plenty of writers can legitimately claim to have become a brand, and among those are quite a few who can note that their names glow with prestige. Not so many, however, can boast that merely mentioning them constitutes a sort of trigger warning, but here's one: David Mamet. In the first feature he has directed since 2008, Mr. Mamet is back with a screen adaptation of his own 2023 play, 'Henry Johnson,' which strikes some familiar chords. (It is being offered both on its own website and in a few theaters.) Among its distinctive attributes are dialogue that is both meandering and menacing, men deceiving each other, and forays into hotly controversial subjects. In the opening scene, two men in an office share a drink while circumnavigating an inflammatory matter: whether killing a fetus can be murder, or manslaughter, if a fetus isn't really a person. A youngish man (an excellent Evan Jonigkeit), who we eventually learn is the title character, seeks to win a job for an old college friend who has just gotten out of prison by making the case to his boss (an equally strong Chris Bauer) that the convict's crime wasn't so bad or, if it was, that we must grant that criminals can be rehabilitated. The act in question was killing a fetus by introduction of abortifacient drugs during sex. For Mr. Mamet (whose 42-year-old play 'Glengarry Glen Ross' inspired a fresh bout of critical outrage this spring in its fourth go-round on Broadway), incendiary material remains a field in which to romp.