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Movies / On DVD / Henry Poole Is Here
Henry Poole Is Here

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Henry Poole Is Here (2008)

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Reviews Counted:85

Fresh:32

Rotten:53

Average Rating:5/10

Consensus: Full of Hallmark-truisms and pop songs presented with strained significance, this comic foible intends less to convert than to preach to the choir.

Runtime: 1 hr 40 mins

Genre: Comedies

US Box Office: $1,749,146

Synopsis: For a man who seems to be living a perfect life--comfortable, engaged, full of opportunity--the discovery in a routine doctor's checkup that all is not well prompts Henry Poole to flee. He finds... For a man who seems to be living a perfect life--comfortable, engaged, full of opportunity--the discovery in a routine doctor's checkup that all is not well prompts Henry Poole to flee. He finds himself alone in a new house and a new place, somewhere where perhaps he can try to escape the fate that he has been dealt. It's a house in a working-class suburb with neighbors who welcome him, or at least try to; he finds them rather unattractive, frankly, but fine for his purposes. But life won't let him alone. His neighbors' intrusions, the discovery of a "miracle" on a backyard wall, and the attentions of a little girl with a tape recorder disrupt whatever hopes he had for hiding out. Director Mark Pellington revisits Sundance (Going All the Way played at the 1997 Festival) with a very personal work about devastation and the need to find yourself. Inspired by Pellington's own loss, Henry Poole Is Here is a work that is soul searching in the best sense of the word. Poignant, yet acerbic and funny, it tells us about faith, the vagaries of life and death, and personal salvation. Powered by a resonant performance from the remarkable Luke Wilson, Henry Poole Is Here is full of small moments and meanings that make it a memorable film. -- © Sundance Film Festival [More]

Starring: Luke Wilson, George Lopez, Cheryl Hines, Radha Mitchell

Starring: Luke Wilson, George Lopez, Cheryl Hines, Radha Mitchell, Adriana Barraza

Director: Mark Pellington

Director: Mark Pellington
Screenwriter: Albert Torres
Studio: Overture Films

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Reviews for Henry Poole Is Here

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1 - 20 (sorted by source; Australian critics are listed first)
Text View | 1 2 3 4 5 >> >|
Arrange By:Fresh | Rotten | Comments | Name | Source | Date
 
 

There is something contrived about this story in which people with major problems find a resolution.

Full Review Source: Urban Cinefile | comment Comment
04/18/09
Louise Keller
Louise Keller
Urban Cinefile
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

A snarky film filled with messages about faith? You better believe it.

Full Review Source: Arizona Republic | comment Comment
08/14/08
Randy Cordova
Randy Cordova
Arizona Republic

... examines ... in a sometimes subtle and sidelong poetic way, is examine the ways people recover and heal.

Full Review Source: Arkansas Democrat-Gazette | comment Comment
08/15/08
Philip Martin
Philip Martin
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

Its story couldn't be more corny, redemptive, or inspirational.

Full Review Source: Austin Chronicle | comment Comment
08/15/08
Josh Rosenblatt
Josh Rosenblatt
Austin Chronicle

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.

Full Review Source: AV Club | comment Comment
10/18/08
Nathan Rabin
Nathan Rabin
AV Club

Henry Poole script has no splash.

Full Review Source: Baltimore Sun | comment Comment
08/15/08
Michael Sragow
Michael Sragow
Baltimore Sun

Sincere, relentlessly somber parable about a severely depressed man whose self-imposed suburban exile is upended by a familiarly-shaped stain on his wall.

Full Review Source: Big Picture Big Sound | comment Comment
08/14/08
Joe Lozito
Joe Lozito
Big Picture Big Sound

Divine intervention notwithstanding, the box office here would ordinarily be meek, but in trying times movies about "something to believe in" tend do better than the ordinary bleak-and-hopeless fare that typically drives domestic box office.

Full Review Source: Boxoffice Magazine | comment Comment
08/14/08
Tim Cogshell
Tim Cogshell
Boxoffice Magazine

A grossly obvious take on the draining push and pull of faith, the picture is warm to the touch, just not digestible or, ultimately, meaningful.

Full Review Source: BrianOrndorf.com | comment Comment
08/14/08
Brian Orndorf
Brian Orndorf
BrianOrndorf.com

I felt let down by Henry Poole Is Here, which seriously examines questions of religious faith until it skips away at last from being pinned down.

Full Review Source: Charlotte Observer | comment Comment
08/15/08
Lawrence Toppman
Lawrence Toppman
Charlotte Observer

Tell him to go away.

Full Review Source: Chicago Reader | comment Comment
12/16/08
J. R. Jones
J. R. Jones
Chicago Reader

A spiritual movie with the power to emotionally touch believers, agnostics and atheists -- in that descending order, I suspect. It doesn't say that religious beliefs are real. It simply says that belief is real. And it's a warm-hearted love story.

Full Review Source: Chicago Sun-Times | comment Comment
08/15/08
Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Chicago Sun-Times
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

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.

Full Review Source: Chicago Tribune | comment Comment
08/15/08
Michael Phillips
Michael Phillips
Chicago Tribune

Some touching moments, but too blandly inspirational.

Full Review Source: Christian Science Monitor | comment Comment
08/15/08
Peter Rainer
Peter Rainer
Christian Science Monitor

A film that Christians will embrace, if only from sheer gratitude; here, at last, is a depiction of Christian faith as something other than the domain of cranks and loonies.

Full Review Source: Christianity Today | comment Comment
08/15/08
Frederica Mathewes-Green
Frederica Mathewes-Green
Christianity Today

"Henry Poole is Here" is not a movie, but rather a sketch for a screenplay that was never written. If ever there was a cinematic impetus to give up all hope for humanity and free expression, it is this patronizing, condescending, and vacuous waste of cell

Full Review Source: ColeSmithey.com | comment Comment
08/13/08
Cole Smithey
Cole Smithey
ColeSmithey.com

It's too uninspired to be inspirational.

Full Review Source: Combustible Celluloid | comment Comment
08/14/08
Jeffrey M. Anderson
Jeffrey M. Anderson
Combustible Celluloid

The movie is certainly flawed, but if you're able to suspend disbelief for the spiritual premise and can appreciate quiet little character-driven films where not much happens, you can do worse than this innocent and often lovely film.

Full Review Source: ComingSoon.net | comment Comment
08/13/08
Edward Douglas
Edward Douglas
ComingSoon.net

Faith-themed dramedy has heavy themes, drinking.

Full Review Source: Common Sense Media | comment Comment
08/21/08
S. Jhoanna Robledo
S. Jhoanna Robledo
Common Sense Media

Sober discussions give way to a clumsily handled finale that doesn't stand a prayer of satisfying most discerning viewers.

Full Review Source: Creative Loafing | comment Comment
08/16/08
Matt Brunson
Matt Brunson
Creative Loafing
 
 
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