There are movies about faith, and then there are movies about Faith; Henry Poole Is Here is one of the latter. These films refuse to let their sullen protagonists learn the error of their curmudgeonly ways on their own terms. They're more than happy to irritate the happiness right back into their lives, often at the expense of the audience's cynicism (not to mention gag reflex). I'm all for stories about inspiring people to appreciate life again, but not when they're like Henry Poole Is Here. Melodramatic to the core and hopelessly one-dimensional, this dramedy coyly claims to have no ulterior motives, though there's no mistaking its allegiance to a certain higher power.
The sad sack at the center of this debacle is one Henry Poole, played by Luke Wilson. A recent transplant to a sunny suburban neighborhood, Henry has no intentions of making nice with the quirky cast of characters surrounding him. He's bound and determined to spend the rest of his days chugging booze and eating frozen pizza, but these plans don't last for long. Local busybody Esperanza (Adriana Barraza) noses about Henry's property and comes upon a water stain on the side of his house — a stain that she claims contains the face of Jesus Christ. Henry thinks nothing of it, until Esperanza starts gathering neighbors and hauling in the church to validate the stain as a religious miracle. In the meantime, however, our hero bonds with fellow damaged soul Dawn (Radha Mitchell), and the relationship that blooms between them might just be enough to rescue Henry from his self-imposed exile.
Henry Poole Is Here isn't a Christian film per se, or at least not one in the way that Fireproof and Facing the Giants are. With an impressive cast and an experienced director (Arlington Road's Mark Pellington) at the helm, I looked forward to this picture dealing with the issue of finding faith in a balanced and offbeat manner. But the beginning credits barely stop before Henry Poole shows its true colors and begins preaching the corniest cinematic sermon in a while.
My main beef with the film is that Albert Torres' script leaves zero room for ambiguity; as far as the story's concerned, Henry's stain is a direct communication from God, and that's that. But with strangers invading his property and hassling him to believe in the miracle wall, I found myself siding more with Henry. Who wouldn't want to withdraw from society under circumstances like these? However, the film's lack of a base in reality dictates that Henry be the one with a problem to solve, clutching close this mindset for each of its 99 agonizing minutes.
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