MESSAGE IN THE MOVIES

Henry Poole Is Here.  Rated PG

by Mark Pellington.  Starring Luke Wilson, Radha Mitchell.

Photo © Overture Films
Movie Review by Rev. Bruce Batchelor Glader

Henry Poole (Wilson) has just been given a death sentence by his doctor (of an illness that is never revealed to us) and moves back to the neighborhood of his childhood.  He is not able to get the house of his dreams, so he settles for a little stucco bungalow (and he is willing to pay an outrageously high price for it).  Henry is angry and sad and everyone can see it on his face, including Patience (Rachel Seiferth), the checkout girl who rings up his liquor purchases.  And then there’s that stain on his outside wall that his neighbor Esperanza (Adrianna Barrazza) says is the face of Jesus.  Eventually Henry will meet Dawn (Mitchell) and Millie (Morgan Lily), a mother and daughter who live next door (and are also sad, but more hopeful than Henry).  As Henry tries to make sense of things while also awaiting his own death, there are miracles taking place.  Henry Poole Is Here is thought-provoking and worth seeing, but it is also so open-minded about belief that a real sense of the holy is evasive.  This film made me a tad nostalgic for movies like 1943’s The Song of Bernadette, in which healing miracles are unabashedly ascribed to God.  Some of the plot devices are contrived and corny, but the sincerity of this film is real.  This is a small movie that will have a hard time finding an audience.  Do yourself a favor and see it, if only for the discussions that you will have afterwards.

Pitchfork Rating: Five halos. (An even-handed film about belief.)  One pitchfork. (For brief occasions of swearing and implications of alcohol problems.)

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