“Heartwarming and uplifting, ‘HENRY POOLE IS HERE’ is the feel good film to kick off the New Year.”
TITLE: HENRY POOLE IS HERE
DURATION: 99 minutes
DVD INFORMATION: Color, Anamorphic Widescreen Presentation 2:40:1, Dolby Surround 5.1, English and Spanish Subtitles
RATED: PG
COMPANY: Anchor Bay Entertainment
Release Date: January 20, 2009
Directed by Mark Pellington
Written by Albert Torres
Produced by Tom Rosenberg, Gary Lucchesi, Richard Wright
Producers: Gary Gilbert, Tom Lassally
Executive Producers:Â Norman Reiss, Eric Reid, Michael Aguilar, Mark Pellington
Starring:
Luke Wilson as Henry Poole
Radha Mitchell as Dawn
Adriana Barraza as Esperanza
George Lopez as Father Salazar
Cheryl Hines as Meg
Morgan Lily as Millie Stupek
Rachel Seiferth as Patience
Henry Poole is Here stars Luke Wilson at Henry Poole, a disillusioned man who attemps to hide from life only to discover he cannot escape the forces of hope.
Shattered by circumstances beyound his control, Henry Poole (Wilson) settles into a suburban isolation, but his well-meaning busybody neighbor (Academy Award Nominee Adriana Barraza of “Babel”), destroys his exile when she discovers a mysterious stain on Henry’s stucco wall that is seen to have miraculous powers.
With the help of the beautiful young divorcee next door (Radha Mitchell of “Finding Neverland”), and her daughter Millie (Morgan Lily), Henry finds himself gradually drawn back towards life as he realizes his plan to live out his days in quiet desperation is going to be much harder than he ever imagined.
Cheryl Hines (Curb Your Enthusiasm) and George Lopez (The George Lopez Show) also star in this modern day tale about the unexpected wonders of the everyday from director Mark Pellington (U2 3D, The Mothman Prophecies).
A heartwarming and uplifting film directed by Mark Pellington (“The Mothman Prophecies”, “U2 3D”) and starring Luke Wilson as Henry Poole who is looking to buy a home and is escorted by his real estate agent (played by Cheryl Hines, “Curb Your Enthusiasm”).
For Poole, he wants the home across the street for some reason but since the home that is available on that street is an unkept home that is being sold for a lot more money than it’s worth, Poole tells the agent that he wants the home. The agent says that she wants to fix the home but Poole tells her it doesn’t matter since he won’t be living there that long. When she asks what he means by that, he shrugs it off.
Henry wants to get away from everything and live at the home with no hassles or distractions. But unfortunately, things are not going as smooth as he would like.
He hears his voice and his realtor’s voice and realizes a young girl next door is recording conversations. Henry tries to talk to her but she runs off.
Unfortunately, things don’t work his way when his neighbor Esperanza goes to his home and finds a stain in the wall that looks like Jesus. Henry is not a man who wants to think about faith at the moment and doesn’t want anyone coming to his home without permission. But next thing you know Esperanza gets her priest Father Salazar involved and next thing you know, friends and believers start leaving candles and start showing up at Henry Poole’s home unannounced.
But something is going on with that stain in the wall, there is some red drips coming out and Esperanza tells him that it’s holy blood but he can’t believe in that.
Meanwhile, the young girl next door is by the stain and Henry tries to stop and talk to her and she drops her recorder. He returns it next door and meets the girl’s mother, Dawn (played by Radha Mitchell). It appears that since her ex-husband left them, her daughter Millie has not said a word for nearly a year. She’s been depressed and her mother worries about her.
One early morning, as Dawn tries to look for her daughter, she finds her touching the stain on Henry’s home. All of a sudden, she starts talking again. Henry hears the commotion and realizes that she’s talked but doesn’t believe it’s a miracle but that it’s just a stain on his home’s wall.
But another miracle happens when a nosy shopping clerk goes to Poole’s home to touch the stain and her eyesight is cured.
Henry still refuses to believe in the stain, refuses to believe in miracles and it is revealed that the reason why he is always sad and angry is because he is dying. The only reason why he wanted to move back in that neighborhood was to live in his old home, where he remembers fond memories of being happy.
But meeting Dawn and Millie has changed his life but he feels it’s unfair for him to get close to a woman and her daughter since he is dying.
VIDEO & AUDIO:
The video quality of “HENRY POOLE IS HERE” was nice and colorful. A lot of footage was filmed during sunny Southern California weather and a lot of the footage is filmed outdoors. The film is presented in anamorphic widescreen (2:40:1).
As for the audio, the audio is presented in Dolby Surround 5.1. The film is primarily all dialogue and no special effects in terms of audio being utilized. If anything, the dialogue is clear and understandable and the film tends to use music quite a bit and the music comes out loud and clear as well.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
The special features featured on “HENRY POOLE IS HERE” are:
- Audio Commentary with Director Mark Pellington and Writer Albert Torres – The two discuss the filming of “HENRY POOL IS HERE” and working with the talent to develop the story. Especially to make Radha Mitchell’s role more important in the film.
- The Making of Hery Pool is Here – a 15+ minute featurette on the making of the film and interviews with the main talent and the director and writer. Wilson talks about how the community were so supportive of the film crew shooting a film in their neighborhood and getting to meet the locals. And much more about the film behind-the-scenes.
- “All Roads Lead Home” Music Video
- “Henry Poole is Here” Music Video directed by Mark Pellington and performed by myspace.co theme song contest winner Ron Irizarry.
- Theatrical Trailer
Overall, I felt that “HENRY POOL IS HERE” was a touching and heartwarming film. I felt the concept of a film based around a stain that looked like Jesus was an interesting story because you see these happen in the headlines. In fact, my family are the type that would probably travel that far to put candles and statues near the site. So, I pretty much can understand how people would go so far and want to ask a stain to grant them a miracle.
Luke Wilson as Henry Poole does a good job as portraying a character that is sad and angry but eventually through the people he meets, he starts to open up. But knowing the situation of his health, he tries to push himself away from any happiness.
Radha Mitchell as Dawn does a good job as trying to be that support for Poole and Adriana Barraza as Esperanza does a great job of being that neighbor who is quite persistent and always believing that the stain is a miracle.
The film is enjoyable but I did have a few problems with it. Some of it seemed to music videoish in presentation. The part of Henry Poole remembering his childhood and going to the place where he wanted to be alone. The whole montage just felt too music video-like and it’s not a bad thing, it just seemed a bit out of place. If anything, I wanted to see at least past glimpse of his family life, when he was happy at least than the whole music montage.
But all in all, it’s a good film. By no means is it preachy. The film is heartwarming and touching. Definitely give it a chance.