Review of Henry Poole Is Here (2008) by Paul N — 28 Sep 2009

I remember seeing the trailer for Henry Poole Is Here and thinking that it looked like a kinda funny movie. If you saw the trailer as well and thought that it was a light-hearted movie touching on faith, please be aware that this is not a comedy. Please be aware that you will spend 90% of the movie watching Luke Wilson with a pained expression on his face. I won't say if this is a good or a bad thing, but it's something to be aware of all the same. And it's good to be aware that this review contains spoilers for the movie. Not that you aren't going to basically know what is going to happen in the movie after 30 minutes into it, but still. I want to be fair.

Remember, spoilers ahead.

Henry Poole is a man with little time to live and little interest in spending what time he does have left actually living. He moves into the house where he assumes he'll die, and attempts to not get engaged with his snoopy neighbor or the single-mom hottie next door with the curious 6-year old daughter. He didn't ask for any improvements to be made to the house before purchasing it, but his agent arranged for it to be restuccoed and repainted. This last part is crucial, as his nosy neighbor discovers the face of Christ in what Henry writes off as a water stain in a poorly done stucco job.

Did I mention that Henry is an atheist?

Athiest +Face of Christ on his wall = conflict.

The movie wants to provide hope. It seems to define hope very generically as "hope in this world" - at least that's the theme that keeps being reiterated on the 'making of' feature that is included on the DVD. For a film that centers around the image of the Son of God on an atheist's wall and the attendant challenges and miracles tied up with it, God, Jesus, Christianity, miracles, the Bible - none of these words or names are mentioned in the 'making of video'. Frankly, they're only used as props in the movie itself. It's as though it was a movie centered around an inspiring dog - apparently the cast and crew consider a 'hope' based on Christian concepts and icons to be as generically accessible as a special interest segment on a three-legged cat on the local news.

There are a plethora of problems with the movie. It tries to hard. It relies on clichés for characters as well as dialogue. Henry is a lovable guy who is acting - understandably - rather unlovably. The snoopy neighbor has a heart of gold as well as a deep and rich life of faith. Not generic faith, but Roman Catholic Christian faith. The single-mom hottie next door doesn't seem to be particularly spiritual, but she repeatedly talks in terms of praying for things to happen or not happen, as opposed to the more generic term hoping. The single-mom hottie falls for Henry almost upon setting eyes on him as does her daughter. All the stars are aligned to beat poor Henry into submission.

Faith is depicted as a personal choice to believe something - though exactly what is never explicitly stated. At the very least, to believe that the stain on Henry's wall might actually be a miraculous, bleeding image of the face of Christ that could have all of the curative powers traditionally associated with such manifestations. The grocery store clerk chooses to believe, and God pays off. The neighbor girl chooses to believe, and God pays off again. Will Henry choose to believe or not? Will God give in for such an amiable gruff of an atheist? I'll bet you can guess.

The symbolism is not exactly subtle. The fence separating Henry and the single-mom hottie's back yard is chain link with those lovely plastic strips woven through to give the illusion of privacy. Except that most of them are broken off, resulting in all sorts of cross-shapes popping up in scenes around the fence. Henry's yard is pretty sparse and uninteresting, while his deeply faithful neighbor has a rich, vibrant, lush yard complete with a pool and shade trees. Get it? Henry's life is bare and empty because he doesn't have faith. Esperanza has faith, and therefore her backyard kicks butt.

That's another little thing. Names. Esperanza (Hope). Dawn. Patience. Dawn wears a shirt at one point emblazoned with Harmony. What an amazing coincidence of names around Henry - all pointing to faith and hope. All of this would be somewhat passable if the ending were better. If it were anything but the drawn-out predictable ending that you know is coming as soon as the cast of characters are in place. All of the muttered God's and Jesus' and Lords and other forms of taking the Lord's name in vain would be halfway worthwhile if the ending of the film really reflected not only hope, but an honest struggle of some sort. A resolution of sorts beyond the Make-A-Wish variety. But that's far and away beyond the ability of this film.

I really like the premise for this movie. There are some good actors who wandered into it. But the film never has the spine to really do anything that it sets itself up to do. As such, you feel bad for Henry - a lot - but you know it's all going to work out fine so he quickly becomes annoying and his refusals to recognize the obvious seem forced and disingenuous. This should have been a great movie about the Christian faith and the Christian God and the world being overrun with His grace and healing. Instead, it truly is a movie about a stucco stain. I guess there's something to be said for truth in advertising.