Henry Poole Is Here, Mark Pellington

‘Henry Poole Is Here’ But Who Cares?

While it might sound like a spoof of evangelicism, Henry Poole Is Here is dreadfully earnest in delivering its message of Christian redemption – earnest and clichéd

Henry Poole Is Here
Mark Pellington
Overture
15 August 2008

Mark Pellington‘s comedy/drama Henry Poole Is Here is an object lesson in how people “cling to guns or religion”, to paraphrase US presidential candidate Barack Obama, to help them cope with individual hardship and disadvantage. In the film, if not in the communities so affronted by Obama’s comment, the denizens of a just-this-side-of-run-down Los Angeles suburb are desperate to cling to something that will help them make sense of their lives. A religious experience will do fine. These down-and-outers willingly or skeptically participate in mass religious hysteria when they believe that the water stain on a stucco wall is a miraculous image of Christ.

Henry Poole Is Here begins with the arrival of Henry Poole (Luke Wilson). His strangeness is cast initially in terms of real estate: he doesn’t haggle over the price of his new house or even allow his agent (Cheryl Hines) to do so on his behalf. When he moves in, he brings precious little furniture or belongings and rebuffs the neighborhood gossip Esperanza’s (Adriana Barraza) overtures towards conviviality.

Henry’s secret (he’s dying of an unnamed disease) is none too difficult to discern, as he repeatedly refers to the fact that he doesn’t need to fix up the place or get more furniture, as he “won’t be here for that long.” Henry hasn’t just come to the neighborhood to die, though. We discover that despite his protestations and pronounced atheism, he desperately seeks some “meaning” in his life and death. Henry is, then, ripe for some good old-fashioned evangelical conversion.

Lucky thing he’s found his way to this particular neighborhood. Esperanza is the devout Latina who “discovers” the miracle. When Esperanza presents Henry with Christ’s visage on his house’s exterior, he insists he sees a “water stain from a lousy stucco job.” Esperanza counters that he isn’t looking hard enough. Looking hard enough and wanting to see and believe in something bigger than oneself is the essence of Esperanza’s (and the film’s) faith. To Henry’s detriment, he can’t shed his secular ways, despite the mounting evidence that what is going on is a “true” miracle and Esperanza’s anguished query, “Mr. Poole, don’t you believe in God!?”

While it might sound like a spoof of evangelicism akin to Brian Dannelly’s Saved! (2004), Henry Poole Is Here is dreadfully earnest in delivering its message of Christian redemption – earnest and clichéd. One of Henry’s ready-to-believe neighbors, Dawn (Radha Mitchell), has a traumatized daughter, Millie (Morgan Lily), who hasn’t spoken since her daddy left the family. On touching the stucco-wall Christ, her speech is restored. Funny how these things work out. Millie’s admiration of her new father figure, Henry, drives him to confront the past demons of his dysfunctional family. Don’t overlook the checkout clerk at the local grocery store, Patience (Rachel Seiferth).

However, your faith and patience likely won’t fare as well for sitting through the slow-moving, lackluster Henry Poole Is Here. If only Henry had clung to guns instead of religion, this film might have at least provided an action sequence.

RATING 1 / 10

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