Review of Henry Poole Is Here (2008) by Ola G — 18 Jan 2009

Henry Poole (Luke Wilson) finds out that he has a very limited time left to live. He leaves everything and returns to his neighborhood where he grew up, buys a house and awaits his death. What he did not count on, was that the neighbors would intervene in his plans and break his selfchosen isolation. Suddenly a stain on his house is.

Seen as the face of Christ and before he knows it, people wants to visit his house with the belief the stain carries healing powers. Henry is very cynical, but the power of wanting to live makes him doubt about if the stain actually could help him. He faces the decision of trying to figure out if the stain has divine powers.

"Henry Poole Is Here" is nicely shot and edited. Reasonbly solid performances and the script has a nice emotional storyline on belief and the power of life. But, while the opening and middle is strong, the ending is dissatisfying and not of my liking. It becomes too ridiculous and lame in the end. I was expecting something much stronger and intriguing. Something that would really give the story a proper emotional closure. "Henry Poole Is Here" could have been a tad bit better in my opinion.