Regarding Henry (1991) – Drama

Directed by Mike Nichols and written by J.J. Abrams (long before his blockbuster fame), Regarding Henry is an intimate character study about loss, transformation, and the fragile rediscovery of self. Harrison Ford, stepping away from his usual action-hero roles, delivers one of his most subdued and affecting performances as Henry Turner, a ruthless Manhattan lawyer whose life is forever altered after he is shot during a convenience store robbery.

Before the accident, Henry is portrayed as cold, arrogant, and detached—successful professionally but emotionally absent from his wife Sarah (Annette Bening) and daughter Rachel. The shooting leaves him with brain damage and amnesia, stripping him of his career-driven identity and forcing him to rebuild his life from scratch. What unfolds is not only a story of recovery but also a poignant meditation on what it means to live authentically.

Ford’s performance is remarkable in its restraint. He embodies Henry’s physical limitations and childlike rediscovery with sensitivity, making the character’s gradual emotional awakening deeply moving. Annette Bening, as Sarah, brings warmth and strength, navigating her own journey of forgiveness as she reconnects with a man who is at once her husband and a stranger.

Cinematographer Giuseppe Rotunno frames the story with elegance, contrasting the cold sterility of Henry’s former high-rise world with the more intimate, lived-in spaces of his recovery. Nichols directs with a steady hand, allowing small gestures—moments of silence, tentative smiles, the learning of simple words—to carry as much weight as courtroom speeches or dramatic confrontations.

Though critics at the time were divided—some found the sentimentality heavy-handed—Regarding Henry endures as a moving exploration of redemption. It suggests that losing everything, even memory, can sometimes be the path toward rediscovering love, compassion, and the simple joys of being alive.