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Review: 'Henry Poole is Here'
Rated PG for thematic elements and language
(out of four)
"Henry Poole is Here"
Overture Films
Michael Machosky can be reached via e-mail or at 412-320-7901.
You're either susceptible to this kind thing or you're not. Usually, I'm not, although director Mark Pelllington goes surprisingly easy on the sentimentality, and the film's inevitable, uplifting Hollywood ending seems well-earned, for once. It has an understated, indie-film feel and features the best performance from Luke Wilson apart from the direction of Wes Anderson.
Wilson plays Poole, a depressed loner, who moves into a working-class California neighborhood. He turns down needed renovations to the house, and gets angry when his real estate agent goes ahead and does them anyway.
His nosy neighbor Esperanza (Adriana Barraza) notices something in the sloppy stucco job on his back wall. She sees the face of God in a big water stain, and is utterly convinced that it's a sign of ... something.
Poole is irritated. He wants to be left alone with his doughnuts and vodka. Meanwhile, he finds out that a little girl next door has been tape-recording him. When confronted, she won't speak. Her mother (the stunning Radha Mitchell) says the girl hasn't spoken in a year, since her father left.
The lonely, desperate Esperanza sees salvation in the wall, claiming it can heal the sick, and people come from all over the neighborhood to touch it. Poole chases them away, and tries to scrub off the stain. Then a trickle of blood inexplicably starts seeping from the wall.
Wilson always plays bottled-up loners well, and other performances -- like George Lopez as a priest and Rachel Seiferth as a beatific grocery cashier -- are surprisingly strong.
• In wide release
