Henry Poole is Here Movie Review

Luke Wilson Stars in Romantic Drama About Spirituality

Aug 12, 2008

When a water stain resembling Christ appears on the side of a house, the resident and neighbors take it as a sign.

Luke Wilson (Blades of Glory) stars as the disillusioned new resident of the home who moves in to escape from his former life for a little while. With the aid of a perky real estate agent (Cheryl Hines of Waitress), he buys a run-down tract home in need of several repairs. To him, the water stain is a sign that the guy who applied the stucco did a lousy job. To his neighbors in this middle-class section of Los Angeles, the stain is a sign from God offering an earthly representation of Jesus Christ for those needing to be healed.

Neighbors of Henry Poole

One neighbor in particular, Esperanza (Adriana Barraza), seems especially determined for the stain to be something more than it appears. She brings her church group (led by George Lopez as the priest) to examine the stain and heal ailing parishioners. As next-door neighbors, Esperanza and Henry form a friendship, although the water stain remains a point of contention.

Living on the other side of Henry’s house is a lovely young divorcee named Dawn (Radha Mitchell of Finding Neverland) and her depressed daughter (Morgan Lily) who refuses to speak, but tape-records the conversations of others. Henry and Dawn begin a tentative romance that includes a candlelit dinner in his backyard.

When miracles start happening at the site of the water stain and with his own faith completely obliterated by his current situation, Henry becomes increasingly outraged that people blindly believe in faith. He tells neighbors to stay off his property, washes the wall with bleach, and even damages his house in an attempt to destroy the amazing stain.

Adriana Barraza Steals the Show

In keeping with his repressed character, Wilson delivers a subdued performance in which the audience guesses at his emotions based on the facts presented (often through flashback). Barraza, on the other hand, holds nothing back in her magnificent depiction of a pesky, but well-intentioned neighbor. As in her moving portrayal of an illegal immigrant nanny in the film Babel, every lift of her eyebrow, tremble in her lip, and inflection in her voice conveys the raw emotions of her character.

Written by Albert Torres, Henry Poole is Here lacks subtlety sometimes (when he visits the grocery store, Henry always stares at the nameplate of a young woman named “Patience”), but makes up for this shortcoming with humor, sensitivity, sincerity, and passion.

The copyright of the article Henry Poole is Here Movie Review in Romantic Films is owned by Leslie C. Halpern. Permission to republish Henry Poole is Here Movie Review in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.