Adriana Barraza and Luke Wilson star in Overture Films "Henry Poole is Here."
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Henry Poole is Here (PG) **½
By Connie Ogle, The Miami Herald
If, like the title character in this odd little film, you cringe at the mention of the word ''miracle,'' Henry Poole Is Here is not for you. This is a movie with a pointed message about the importance of having faith, in other people as well as in a higher power, and audiences open to that concept will enjoy the film a lot more than those who are as cynical as its hero.
Henry Poole wastes no time on preliminaries or back story, a concept that works in its favor when it comes to swift pacing but occasionally grows frustrating. We never learn what Henry (Luke Wilson) does for a living, for example, though whatever it was, it was lucrative, because the film opens with his refusing to haggle over the price of a house in a middle-class SoCal neighborhood.
Harry is a sad and cranky misanthrope, not fond of shaving, a mess, and he wants to be left alone. But his kind but unnervingly persistent neighbor Esperanza (Adriana Barraza of Babel) spies the face of Jesus in a water stain on the side of Henry's house, and before long pilgrims are popping by to leave offerings and marvel at the miracle. Henry, weighed down by an immense secret that anyone over 10 will guess within minutes, glowers and chases everybody off. The jarring lack of specifics regarding this secret only adds to the film's fable-like quality.
Even when the wall starts to bleed, Henry -- clearly not raised a Catholic -- is slow to grasp the significance, and he refuses to budge in his disbelief. Then he meets another neighbor (Radha Mitchell), who has a mute 6-year-old daughter and a natural radiance that draws even mopey Henry's attention. Miraculously, she makes him smile. And soon he realizes that there's something to this living-for-the-moment concept.
Director Mark Pellington (The Mothman Prophecies) has never met a fade-to-black he doesn't like, and he's a bit too fond of staging grand emotional revelations to loud pop songs (though it's hard not to admire his choice of Bob Dylan's Not Dark Yet). But though his film can be dogmatic and simplistic, it's never too preachy to stomach. A large part of the movie's appeal can be attributed to Wilson, more dour than he's been in ages and yet more interesting, too. He makes Henry's tentative steps toward hope more moving than you might expect.
That's the thing about Henry Poole: its relentless optimism rubs off on you, just as it does on Henry. ''People don't go around helping each other for no reason,'' he angrily tells Esperanza early on. But it's nice to think that they might.
Cast: Luke Wilson, Radha Mitchell, Adriana Barraza, George Lopez, Cheryl Hines
Director: Mark Pellington
Screenwriter: Albert Torres
Producers: Gary Gilbert, Gary Lucchesi, Tom Rosenberg, Richard S. Wright
A Overture Films release. Running time: 100 minutes. Thematic elements, some language. Playing at area theaters.
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