Review of Henry Poole Is Here (2008) by Benjamin F — 03 Apr 2009

I'm a big indie film junkie, but this one was pretty mediocre. Luke Wilson, Radha Mitchell, and Adriana Barraza's performances give this film an extra half-star. But that's about it. The writing isn't that gutsy and eventually chucks its vaguer and more interesting elements out the window for a litany of blind religious groupthink that made the whole film feel intellectually dishonest and manipulative.

It would've been a headache to watch if not for that the character of Poole was generally too smart for the film's contrived message. It tried to throw some other elements in there as well, such as the importance of belief in one's self, but a lot of the themes were very muddled in their presentation, and largely just thrown away in the last 20 or so minutes of the movie.

The script's mostly good, with a few importantly likable central characters. The cinematography's great, but the direction takes a left turn into music video territory with slowed down shots of the characters a little too often. And in the least, the music was good.

Don't read the description before watching this, either. Elements they talk about - such as a lost fiancee and mother - are never so much as mentioned in the film. I don't think whoever wrote the description ever actually watched the movie.

As a writer myself, I found myself analyzing the construction of the plot and dialogue as the film progressed - as I often do when watching movies - and couldn't help but come away thinking I could have done better things with this kind of story. Mostly in making it a rougher narrative, with sharper humor. Elements like that could have improved this sort of story, along with a celebration of the vague, versus the blatant preachy turn the narrative took.