Henry Poole Is Here

Well-acted and suffused with a generous palliative spirit, Henry Poole Is Here is a movie that one could sneer and scoff at, for it is so gentle as to seem naive.

Henry Poole Is Here achieves something that is uncommonly difficult. It is a spiritual movie with the power to emotionally touch believers, agnostics and atheists -- in that descending order, I suspect.

Director Mark Pellington is best known for such taut thrillers as Arlington Road and The Mothman Prophecies, so his work here is quite surprising. He brings a gently nuanced tone to the film, and the neighborhood setting seems quite real.

Mark Pellington directed this with style and sympathy, letting a fairly predictable script play with our emotions, but never allowing "maudlin" to intrude.

A few small things here and there -- including a rushed and somewhat muddled ending -- prevent Henry Poole Is Here from being a genuine cinematic miracle.

Henry Poole is Here finds issues of faith, specifically Christianity, shining gloriously just beneath a peeling, tacky coat of paint, and the reveal is often breathtaking cinema.

The film is told from the heart and acted with splendid sensitivity by a talented cast possessing just the right chemistry. Comedy veteran Wilson is especially good in his biggest dramatic stretch to date.

It has an understated, indie-film feel and features the best performance from Luke Wilson apart from the direction of Wes Anderson.

Director Mark Pellington neatly underplays the more maudlin touches of rookie Albert Torres' script and draws a richly complex performance from the usually bland Wilson.

It does get a bit cloying at times but works largely due to a solid, appealing cast, including Luke Wilson, who brings a measured, nuanced performance to the lead role.

Henry Poole is Here is a quiet movie that confidently moves from humorous to serious, caustic to sweet while exploring faith-based themes.

Its script totters perilously close to having a Roman Catholic agenda, its violent climax rings false (and is simply not sufficiently motivated) and its predictable ending diminishes the very issue it raises.

A sneaky little heart-tugger called Henry Poole is Here is camped on the believers' side of the river, while it invites the skeptics with a better cast and more skillful direction than the usual faith-based fable.

Wilson is more or less a blank slate, on which we can project whatever emotions we like. That approach works well enough with his character -- but not, in the end, with the core of the story.

It's hard not to applaud the film's gentle embrace of mystery and the healing properties of faith.

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.

This quirky comedy-drama is more conventional than it wants to be, but also deeper than it might seem.

If you're a sucker for a New Age-meets-old-time-religion tale and you have nothing else to do this weekend, then this one's for you. Everyone else should stay home.

Director Pellington strives hard to make it uplifting, but his strivings can't overcome the plot holes, the lugubrious Luke's performance or the throbbing crescendoes and overbearing lyrics of a seriously sappy set of songs.

Pellington, a former director of music videos, leans too hard on pop songs to supply emotional heft, and he makes a couple of weird choices toward the end of the film.

The film is both crafty and subtle in the way that it displays overtly Christian beliefs, but constructed in a way that seems to be as much about one's belief in mankind and the redemptive powers of love and friendship.

Even if Torres' script doesn't absolutely require you to accept a messianic vision, it equates faith in this film's stain-on-the-wall Jesus with beliefs in love, the preciousness of everyday life and the possibility of miracles.

Quirky with a capital Q, Mark Pellington’s Henry Poole Is Here strives to be a Little Miss Sunshine for the Donnie Darko crowd. But it’s more like a religious allegory that wants to have it both ways and falls short.

The Lord may work in mysterious ways, but the filmmakers behind sensitive, life-affirming indie dramas about brooding young men stumbling towards redemption are an awfully predictable lot.

Some touching moments, but too blandly inspirational.

It's less a tale of religious rebirth than a faith-based Hallmark card.

Henry Poole Is Here, meant to be a jaunty bit of spiritually uplifting counterprogramming in a dark and menacing summer of blockbusters, has a peculiar air of forced fellowship about it.

Unfortunately it's all a bit dull. The combination of placid technique and Wilson's amiable, offhanded approach to a sketchily drawn character leads to a dissolution of dramatic interest around the midpoint.

The best thing one can say about Henry Poole Is Here is that it is a religious film where theology is barely recognizable. Some of the characters would call this a miracle. Audiences will find it slightly less extraordinary.

Henry Poole is Here is one of those average guy-miracle stories that are supposed to make you feel good, but instead it just makes you feel used, and used rather badly.

Director Mark Pellington deserves some credit for establishing a palpable sense of melancholy early on. The run-down suburban neighborhood, underpopulated and going to seed, could have been an evocative setting for a much better movie.

Aside from its naive premise, the simple plot is a pleasant, refreshing change from movies that stress everything but human connections.

While believers will find reaffirmation in Henry Poole, nonbelievers might remain unmoved. Pellington's parable of faith preaches to the converted.

Henry Poole is simply made, with only a handful of characters, and uses its barren, suburban setting to great effect.

The filmmakers announce their intentions so quickly and so baldly that there's really no reason for the movie to exist.

Henry Poole works hard to convert us, even pulling out quotes from Noam Chomsky, but it feels a little too much like a bumper sticker.

The film has some amusing moments and can be intriguing when it focuses on the slow transformation of a hopeless, faithless man.

Every so often there's a tabloid news story about the Virgin Mary seen in a piece of toast or Mother Teresa on a tortilla, and most of us equate them with Elvis sightings. This film is for the rest.

Henry Poole Is Here is a movie that asks all the big questions and then, weirdly, wrecks itself by offering puny answers.

A not-so-convincing character study gets bogged down, failing to succeed in either of its goals -- as compelling drama or to give spiritual enlightenment.

As it bludgeons us with sappy talk of miracles and a ridiculously loud, these! songs! are! meaningful! soundtrack, the film is more likely to inspire cynicism than hope.

How you feel about Henry Poole will depend entirely on how you feel about its fervent message: that miracles succeed where science fails.

I don’t know if Pellington found religion recently, but I do know you have to wonder about the artistic health and decision-making abilities of any filmmaker who looks for divinity in shots of sunlight pouring out from behind clouds.

Henry Poole Is Here manages a fairly rare trick: It's a movie that's both deeply felt and completely phony.

Mark Pellington, a director with some visual facility, strains to animate Alberto Torres’ platitude-strewn script, but his craft is as dubious as the underlying wish-your-troubles-away message.

You see, God works in mysterious ways and since we have little power to interfere, it's best not to question him. Above all, the film suggests, it's best not to think.