Review: ‘Henry Poole is Here’

Ram Man:

What would you do if the doctor told you “I’m sorry but you have an incurable disease and you are going to die.”? If you Henry Poole you are going to shut down, return to your childhood home and try a little self euthanasia..do all the bad things that would supposedly kill you before the disease can.

Luke Wilson (Old School, A Family Stone) is Henry Poole. Following a routine physical, Henry is told his days are numbered. So he quits his job and moves back to the last place he was really happy… his childhood neighborhood. He wasn’t able to but his old house (they people wouldn’t sell) , but did manage to get a fixer upper down the street for $100,000 more than its worth. The neighborhood is right out of a TV set, I expected Mr Rogers to jump out from behind a bush. Adriana Barraza gives an astounding performance as Esperanza the local busy-body next door. She was shagging the guy who previously owned the house (she found him dead on the kitchen floor) and comes over tamales in hand to welcome Henry to the Neighborhood. Poole who is on a diet of Krispy Kreme doughnuts, pizza,champagne and vodka just wants to be left alone to die. He slips in “I’m not going to be here long” to everyone he meets. Esperanza makes a riveting discovery as she leaves Henry’s house. The face of GOD is appearing on the terrible stucco job on the side of Henry’s house. Henry, who has lost his faith in everyone and everything tells Esperanza she is nuts and not to make a big deal out of it. Bring on the Bible Brigade! George Lopez, who turns in a wonderful cameo as Father Salizar, comes to test the validity of the “miracle”.

Like the USA Today, Esperanza get the word out to the neighborhood so people begin to appear at his back door. Poole next makes the acquaintance of Millie (Morgan Lilly) who spends her days recording people conversations and like Henry avoiding personal contact if she can. Millie daughter of Dawn (Radha Mitchell) next door, hasn’t spoken a word in almost a year since her dad left them. Millie makes her way to the spot on the wall, touches it and SPEAKS! This all Esperanza needs, now Henry’s back yard is standing room only. This sends Henry back to the store only this time for bleach not vodka. Rachel Seiferth is wonderful as Patience the practically Blind grocery checker that continuously tries to bring Poole out of his depression. She asks Henry “Isn’t it better to feel sad than not to fell anything at all?” Let me say YES! She also adds “I hope your not mixing with this (Bleach)!” Henry begins to try to wipe out the Holy smudge and only makes it more clear and now hes angered the oh mighty.. tears of blood are rolling down the wall.

Patience is the next parishioner to show up at Henry’s backyard cathedral. She touches the wall and falls to her knees and yells “I can See!!!!” The touch of God’s stucco has given the girl with the coke bottle glasses 20/20. This is far too much for Henry to handle. His blossoming romance with Dawn and his own incurable fate mixed with the smudge from heaven send Henry into a rage. Poole takes a sledge hammer to God and God brings down the house… on Henry.

Director Mark Pellington and Writer Albert Torres team up to tell this wonderful story of faith and hope in a way not to preach to the audience but to entertain us. Pellington, who identifies with Poole’s character, having lost his wife at the age of 42 injects some of his grief into the story. Henry Poole is a fable set in modern times to expain the unexpected wonders in the world around us. The acting is great. The only criticism I have is it is very slow moving but worth your time. Henry Poole is here and you should be there… watching… so go… go on… catch Henry before the title reads Henry Poole was here!

(3.5 out of 5 angels)

Michelle:

What do you do when your doctor’s prognosis is grim and you’re given only a short time to live? If you’re Henry Poole (Luke Wilson), you try to return to the home of your childhood – or at least one down the street. But in ‘Henry Poole Is Here,’ one really can’t go home again. Sadly, when Poole realizes he can’t recapture the brief happiness of his youth, he sets out to die quietly in his newly bought “prison.” That is, til well-meaning neighbors (Adriana Barraza and Radha Mitchell) filled with faith and hope, a priest (George Lopez), along with a lofty apparition on his house, make Henry’s solitude and redemption more than he bargained for.

While based on director Mark Pellington’s own personal loss, ‘Henry Poole Is Here’ feels like a present day O. Henry story. With its ordinary people, coincidental plot, and surprise twist, ‘Poole’ ironically has a typical O. Henry ending.

(3 out of 5 stars)

Kat:

When Henry Poole (Luke Wilson) gets the news that he’s contracted an unnamed but rare disease, his response is to quit his job and return to the Southern California suburb where he was raised. He tries to buy the house he grew up in but alas, it’s not for sale, even though he’s willing to offer a good price. “They live there,† his realtor (Cheryl Hines) explains with a strained smile, “it’s their home.† Resigned to his fate, Henry stocks up on booze and frozen pizzas and prepares to die. Only his pesky neighbors won’t leave him in peace.

First Esperanza (Adriana Barraza) shows up bearing tamales and tales of the house’s former owner, who was her boyfriend. Then the little mute girl next door (Morgan Lily) insists on tape recording all his conversations—a habit that leads to a pivotal plot twist later on. Even the check-out girl at the local supermarket (Rachel Seiferth) urges him to spill his sad and angry thoughts and is taken aback when he finds the suggestion intrusive.

When Esperanza discovers what she believes to be the image of Christ in a water-stained section of stucco on Henry’s house, a battle of wills begins with Henry on one side and the rest of the world, including Esperanza’s priest (George Lopez in a warm and understated performance) on the other.

Somewhere beneath the overwrought soundtrack and the overwhelming overkill of the movie’s message, there’s an affecting story about faith and hope and love that’s trying to come out. In fact, there are a couple of moments where you can see what this movie could have been, like a scene where Henry good-naturedly supervises a group of Esperanza’s friends who have come to pray at his wall. There’s an easy-going vibe to the scene that almost feels improvised and we never like Henry and Esperanza more than we do in that moment.

But for every scene like that, there are a dozen that are so manufactured and mechanical that they bury the emotion. Henry frets that it’s unfair for him to start a romance with single mother Dawn (Radha Mitchell) who assures him it’s fine, apparently forgetting that her child has such severe abandonment issues that she went mute when her father left.

Albert Torres’ script is sincere but simplistic, with its themes pounded home in an unsubtle manner that underlines the movie’s “big moments† as if shining a light on them.

The audience will be able to tell when one of those scenes is coming because that over-the-top soundtrack is cranked up to 11 and all the actors put on really serious faces. Wilson gives a somewhat monotone performance here, although there are times when he’s really present and those times register strongly. His discomfort at being hugged, for instance, tells us much more about his character than his frequent cranky outbursts.

Director Mark Pellington (The Mothman Prophecies) has a very heavy hand here, particularly with certain images he repeats over and over. There’s a behind-the-stain† shot of some miracle blood that may not be able to turn water into wine but that can apparently turn stone into glass. It’s distracting. Then there are the repeated shots of a particular group of clouds. We’re not certain if it’s meant to be a leitmotif or the filmmakers just didn’t have the coverage they needed to cut the sequence together.

Pellington also micro-manages his actresses, and a few of the choices he makes seem ill-conceived. Barraza’s Esperanza is all exaggerated facial expressions and over-emphatic gestures. Anyone who saw her in Babel will be surprised to see how broad her performance is here. Cheryl Hines has apparently been encouraged to channel her inner Kathy Lee Gifford and her perkilicious performance gives the movie an atonal feeling from the get-go.

Mitchell isn’t over-directed, but she’s bland. Her lovely, luminous eyes practically glow in the first glimpse we get of her, but after awhile, she seems to be posing more than acting and her poses have that slightly pained look Princess Diana always seemed to have in official photographs.

Character-driven dramas like Henry Poole is Here are becoming endangered species, so it’s a shame that this one failed to live up to its potential.

Travis:

I like Luke Wilson. I always have, ever since I first saw ‘Bottle Rockets’. No one would argue he’s the world’s greatest actor, but he does have a certain realism and subtle innocent, yet worldly charm about his acting style. He tends to play the “everyman” type of characters and does convincingly well, as he does in director Mark Pellington’s ‘Henry Poole is Here’.

I’m not going to sugar coat this review… I just can’t. The movie deserves better than that. It’s not the greatest film of the year and it’s not even the most original. In fact, the story is kind of predictable. However, its the brilliantly shot and structured visual acuity from an experienced music video director combined with a fabulous soundtrack and beautifully understated performances that give this film it’s appeal. ‘Henry Poole’ is a spiritual film, not a religious film. It’s a satisfying journey into the inner working of belief and hope and the powers these human experiences have over us, both positive and negative. It’s obvious that this was a personal film, especially if you’re aware of the personal tragedy that Pellington went through prior to making this movie, which was born of that unfortunate experience that inspired him to make a more meaningful film.

“Henry Poole’ moves at a slowly addictive pace, pulling you in little by little as Henry Poole’s character is developed further and further. The mystery lies not within the details of Henry Poole’s past, but within the intricate details of his present life as he lives it one moment at a time. The supporting characters were delightfully well-played, offering color and texture without interfering with the complex emotions that Wilson is able to pull off so well.

Every character in the film shines, from Poole’s nosey neighbor Esperanza to the attractive single mother Dawn (Radha Mitchell) and her adorable daughter Milly. Personally, my favorite supporting performance in the film is by Rachel Seiferth as Patience, a grocery clerk with hopelessly poor eyesight and extreme Coke-bottle glasses who gets Henry Poole probably better than anyone else. Cheryl Hines (Curb Your Enthusiasm) also makes a brief, but hilarious cameo as the Poole’s real estate agent at the beginning of the film. When so many movies feel the need to go over the top to tell a truly touching story of the human experience, ‘Henry Poole’ finds it’s muse within a miraculously water-stained stucco house.

(3.5 water stains out of 5)

[rating: 3.5/5]