Henry Poole Is Here

While not a particularly subtle film, Henry Poole is Here is one of those movies that only those who can identify with feelings of hopelessness and despondency can appreciate. Given our cultural propensity to medicate whenever pesky complications such as emotional growth or depth come on, most will respond to the movie in a contrary fashion, lashing out or dismissing it in really any way they can, which is truthfully just par for the course. People like rules and easily measured modes of success, and as such, find the questioning of these apparent verities absurd or laughable, as sincerity and difference are often equated with weakness. As a guileless investigation of basic human annihilation anxieties, Henry Poole is leaps and bounds beyond most philosophically-driven movies, dropping the pretension and glib undergraduate rants and focusing on the inherent difficulty of finding hope in a world that offers nothing but perpetual disappointment. This refusal to hope comes care of Henry Poole (Luke Wilson), a man whose search for solace and isolation brings him to sunny suburbia, where he plans to live out his days by getting drunk and eating frozen pizzas. The problem with this ideal ending comes care of nosy neighbour Esperanza (Adriana Barraza), who believes a watermark on Henry's house to be the face of Jesus, which is only exacerbated when she brings her priest (George Lopez) in to give weight to her claim. Meanwhile, Henry's other neighbour, Dawn (Radha Mitchell), silently struggles as a single mother with a daughter (Morgan Lily) who refuses to speak. Included with the DVD is the "All Roads Lead Home" music video, in addition to the "Henry Poole is Here" music video directed by Pellington, featuring MySpace contest winner Ron Irizarry, which is about as good as one might expect from a MySpace contest winner. Also included is a brief "making of" featurette, as well as a feature-length commentary with director Pellington and writer Albert Torres, which is extremely personal and informative, talking about the changes the film went through, how people tend to either love or hate the movie and what they wanted to communicate with it.