Backstage at Sundance 2008

» Need a Feel-Good? Henry Poole is Here

by Lisa Tucker
WW Interactive Communications

I had an opportunity to see the movie, Henry Poole is Here the other day at Sundance. Before I could even blog about it, I heard that Overture Films just bought the rights to the film for a cool $3.5 million. So, it looks like everyone is going to get a chance to see this movie in your local theater. Would I recommend you do so? Well, it depends.

You see I went into the theater to see this movie by myself on a cold afternoon in Park City feeling a bit melancholy. I admit freely that I really needed a feel-good movie pick-me-up. Since I’m not an actual movie critic by trade, I figure it is okay to tell you that I enjoyed the movie if for no other reason other than my state of mind. (Perhaps that happens to all critics, but they just don’t tell us…)

Anyway, in a nutshell, the movie is about this guy, Henry Poole, played by Luke Wilson who finds out he has a terminal illness, so he quits his job, leaves his fiancé and mother and moves to a house on the street where he grew up. He does what many of us would do in that predicament – he eats Krispy Kremes (and other junk food) and drowns his sorrows in alcohol. He doesn’t want anything to do with his neighbors, or the local supermarket checkout girl, who all try to befriend him. His pesky neighbor, played by Adriana Barraza discovers a “miracle” on the wall of his house that leads multiple people (including her priest, played by George Lopez) to touch the wall in order to experience miracles in their own life. All the while, Henry remains skeptical that the wall is anything other than a bad stucco job.

The movie has many touching parts to the story – especially the story line around the little girl next door who no longer speaks due to trauma in her life. The equally charming supermarket checkout girl with the degenerative eye disease is also very touching.

The end of this movie is very predictable, even a little sappy. But the message is a good one, and there are many times in the movie where I laughed out loud. The pesky neighbor, played by Adriana Barraza perfectly personified the role of the modern-day Mrs. Kravitz. And the real estate agent, played by Cheryl Hines, absolutely steals the show. I can think of no one better to play a perpetually perky real estate agent than Hines – hilarious.

This movie contained a very different role for Luke Wilson – it was a serious role for him and he played it very well. After the movie, during the Q&A, Wilson was pretty low-key, trying to stay out of the limelight as much as possible. Screenwriter Albert Torres spoke a bit about why he wrote the film, explaining that he had stopped writing for a time, and found himself a bit lost. It was not until he picked up writing again – this time writing what he knew, and what he wanted to write about – that he began to feel good again about his craft.

So, all in all, if need a little a pick-me-up on a cold winters day, or a hot summer afternoon (depending on when this movie comes out), this movie could be for you.