Henry Poole Is Here DVD: Review By Brian Gallagher

I had honestly never heard of this film, Henry Poole is Here, until I found out that I was doing the video interview junket for the theatrical release and got to screen the film early. It looked like a quaint, simple little flick, but I wasn't really sure if it would be effective or not, and was pleasantly surprised to find out that it really was a moving picture that shows us the power of hope.

The film centers on the character of Henry Poole (Luke Wilson), a man who's coming back to the California neighborhood he grew up in... to die in. After trying to unsuccessfully buy his childhood home, his realtor (Cheryl Hines) finds him another house down the street and Henry takes the place, moves in and starts his meager little existence in the sleepy town, after he finds out that he's been stricken with an unknown disease that only gives him months left to live. Despite just wanting to be left alone, he finds himself neighbors with the pesky Esperanza Martinez (Adriana Barazza) and a lovely divorcee, Dawn (Rahda Mitchell) and her isolated daughter Millie (Morgan Lily), with even a young girl at the town's grocery store named Patience (Rachel Seiferth) wondering what's wrong with Henry Poole after he keeps buying exorbitant amounts of booze and frozen pizza's. Shortly after moving in, this man who just wants to be left alone has his world turned upside down when Esperanza discovers what she thinks is a miracle: the face of God on his house, which seems to be just a water stain on a crappy stucco job. Soon thereafter, Esperanza brings her priest, Father Salazar (George Lopez) to the house and as Esperanza quickly spreads the word, the house becomes a spectacle in the neighborhood, with everyone just wanting to touch the wall and have their miracle happen and after some supposed miracles do start happening, Poole has to deal with this stucco stain and all the hubbub around it.

This film is actually quite reminiscent of Leaving Las Vegas in many ways, but it has a very different outlook on life i.e. it's very much a feel-good picture and won't depress the hell out of you like Leaving Las Vegas will. This is a very simple picture, with just a character-driven story with no big bells and whistles, but the story is rather effective and these characters are brought to life wonderfully by a diverse cast of actors. This movie is the first produced film from screenwriter Albert Torres, and he has a wonderful gift for telling a very realistic story that, at its core, has some pretty wacky ideas like miraculous stucco jobs that can work wonders for people if they touch it. What's great about this is he really doesn't take any of this too far and the film really touches on a lot of things like faith, hope and why there doesn't have to be an explanation for everything. He has some wonderful dialogue throughout, with some nice touches of humor here and there - nothing laugh-out-loud funny, usually, but great little bits of comedic relief throughout. One of the few things that bothered me about the film, though, is there is a lot of mystery about Henry Poole himself and while the character is developed nicely, I would've actually liked to see a bit more of his backstory because I think it would've rounded the character out even more. He gives us little sprinkles of his background and childhood and how he found out he was sick, but it's just barely enough and I would've liked to have more.

Luke Wilson can be either hit or miss for me, but he surely hits the bullseye with this character Henry Poole and he gives us glimpses at some range that we normally don't get to see him display in other roles he's taken. He has a great take on the right kind of humor for this film and he hits all the emotions on the spectrum quite effectively here. Rahda Mitchell is pretty good (not the best, really) here as the hot neighbor Dawn, Morgan Lily does a great job as the young Millie and Adriana Barazza is just perfect as the nosy neighbor Esperanza Martinez, with Rachel Seiferth doing a nice job in the smaller role of Patience. I have to say, though, one of the biggest surprises here for me was that the wacky comedian George Lopez is playing the straightest, most low-key character in the film, that of Father Salazar, and he did a damn good job. I found myself laughing a few times just because of how weird it was having him speak in this really subdued kind of voice ("I can see how it can be interpreted as a face. That's quite clear" - hilarity) and it's just something you never expect from someone like George Lopez, who's built a career around his zany brand of comedy. I'm quite interested to see what other kinds of characters Lopez will tackle next, because it's quite clear from this that there's more to Lopez's chops than just the laughs.

Along with Lopez, the other really big surprise of the movie was that it was directed by Mark Pellington. It's not that Pellington isn't a good director, he's a damn fine one, but he's most noted for making tons of music videos and thrillers like the masterful Arlington Road and The Mothman Prophecies, which I thought was a lot better than it was received by other critics. Pellington does a terrific job at the helm here and, as you learn in the note from Pellington inside the DVD packaging, he wanted to make a more personal film after being struck with tragedy a few years back when his wife unexpectedly passed away, and this film was his outlet for that. While the film is small in scale, it's definitely big on story and Pellington was incredibly effective in working with all the actors and creating quite a moving little pictures.

Henry Poole is Here is a simple but moving little film that gives us some unique insights on hope, faith and miracles that can come in the most unexpected of places.

We don't get a whole lot in the extras department, but let's see what we have. We start out with The Making of Henry Poole Is Here and we get some nice bits from director Mark Pellington about how they found Luke Wilson for Henry Poole and some parts about the supporting actors like George Lopez (and how unexpected a choice this crazy comedian was to play a low-key priest), Rahda Mitchell, Adriana Barazza, and these actors talking about director Mark Pellington, and it was rather interesting to see how Pellington works, with these little mini-monitors on a board so he can be right up close to the action. It's a nice little 15-minute featurette that takes us a little bit deeper into this lovely film.

The only other material we get here are a couple of music videos. The first one is a video for the song All Roads Lead Home, which was played during one of the scenes in the movie and the video basically is a take off that scene. The second video is for the song Henry Poole Is Here, which the film's director Mark Pellington directed and the sing was performed by a dude who won a contest on MySpace, Ron Irizarry. Neither of these songs are really my kind of music, but you might like them.

The film includes both the anamorphic widescreen presentation, in the 2.40:1 aspect ratio and the fullscreen version in the 1.33:1 aspect ratio. The choice is all yours!

The sound is handled through the Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound format.

The front is pretty much the film's one-sheet, with a shot of Luke Wilson taking up most of the cover with a title card above him and a shot of Adriana Barraza, Rahda Mitchell, Morgan Lilly, Cheryl Hiines and George Lopez above. The back has a critic quote from Roger Ebert, a nice synopsis, a shot of Wilson laying out on a lawn chair, three really small photos, a nice special features listing along with the billing block and tech specs. Not too shabby.

Henry Poole is Here is a very simple, no frills little movie, but it's filled with compelling performances and a nice quirky story at the heart of the movie, that will reach out to your heart as well.