If only people would believe in miracles more, they’d be a lot better off, suggests the new movie “Henry Poole is Here.”
I guess your enjoyment of this picture will depend on how much you agree with that sentiment. At the beginning of the film, Henry (Luke Wilson) is all out of faith, shunning friendship and hope.
He buys a house in a nondescript development, but insists he’s not going to live there long. We will find out why he’s so adamant on this point in a much-delayed but not at all surprising revelation.
Unshaven and depressed, he mopes around the back yard trying to fend off the neighborly attention of Esperanza (Adriana Barraza, the Oscar nominee from “Babel”), a middle-aged woman who lives nearby.
She is convinced that a water stain on the side of Henry’s house is the face of Jesus. His next-door neighbor Dawn (Radha Mitchell) is neutral, and her daughter (Morgan Lily) is mute. Literally: She hasn’t spoken in a year.
When the kid touches the wall and begins speaking, Esperanza and the growing legions of believers are sold. That water stain is a miracle, and no amount of logic can talk them out of it.
Not that the movie, written by Albert Torres and directed by Mark Pellington, is interested in logic. Its condescending message is that these plain folks are fine with their magical thinking — as long as it makes them feel better, great.
Even with this story line, the film might have been enjoyable if played as a swift comedy. But Pellington, whose overrated “Arlington Road” was a jittery look at a similar suburban setting, seems as sad-sack as his hero. Endless scenes crawl by that might have usefully been dispensed with in 30 seconds or so.
Radha Mitchell is radiant, and Cheryl Hines contributes her expert comic timing in a couple of scenes. The casting of Luke Wilson is interesting, because Wilson’s been doing lightweight duty lately. But the actor is so laid back, you never get the spark that supposedly is hiding beneath the funk.
The only way “Henry Poole” actually embodies its supernatural ideas is in its implausible plotting. This one’s bigger than the healing powers of a water stain: the possibility that Radha Mitchell would move next door, be single, and bake you cookies. There’s your miracle.
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