Henry Poole Is Here (2008) or, Faith in Sunny California

2/05/2022

Henry Poole Is Here (2008) or, Faith in Sunny California

♥♥

A cluttered poster for Mark Pellington's Henry Poole Is Here that establishes that the film is set in California

Poole buys a house in Los Angeles, where he intends to drink, be lonely and die in peace from his unnamed fatal illness. But his neighbor sees Jesus on the side of his house; the other neighbor is highly interested in Poole himself; and miracles start to occur.

Henry Poole Is Here is written by Albert Torres (The Fugitive (2020, TV-series)) and directed by Mark Pellington (Going All the Way (1997)).

Radha Mitchell (Bird People (2014)) is too good for this film. Luke Wilson (The Skeleton Twins (2014)) as Poole pulls faces and doesn't entirely seem to believe the script, which is also quite hard-pumped with missionizing cliches. Adriana Barraza (Dark Blood (2021)) is, however, wonderful as the faithful Catholic next door.

The film has plenty of music that it doesn't seem to live up to. Henry Poole Is Here also suffers from an inordinate amount of focus shifts as well as unrealistic endings. It has its heart in the right place but is very far from convincing.

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: Unknown
Box office: 1.9 mil. $

= Uncertain - but likely a mega-flop (projected 0.38 time cost return)

[Henry Poole Is Here premiered 21 January (Sundance Film Festival) and runs 99 minutes. Shooting took place in California, including in Los Angeles. It opened #16 to an 805k $ first weekend in 527 theaters in North America, where it receded from then on, grossing 1.8 mil. $ (94.7 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Spain with 29k $ (1.5 %) and UAE with 16k $ (0.8 %). If made on a scant 5 mil. $ budget, the film would rank as a mega-flop with a 0.38 time cost return. Roger Ebert gave the film a 3.5/4 star review, translating to 3 notches over this one. Pellington returned with a TV movie and 2 music videos prior to his theatrical return with I Melt with You (2011). Wilson returned in Tenure (2008); Mitchell in The Children of Huang Shi (2008). Henry Poole Is Here is rotten at rotten at 40 % with a 5.20/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

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Born in Canada, Sutherland battled polio as a child. His first credit was in Suspense (1963, TV-series) and his first film was The Castle of the Living Dead (1964). Later credits in his remarkable career include The Saint (1965-66), The Dirty Dozen (1967), M*A*S*H (1970), Kelly's Heroes (1970), Klute (1971), Don't Look Now (1973), 1900 (1976), Casanova (1976), The Eagle Has Landed (1976), Ordinary People (1980), A Dry White Season (1989), JFK (1991), Outbreak (1995), Fallen (1998), Virus (1999), Fierce People (2005), Pride & Prejudice (2005), Lord of War (2005), The Hunger Games (2012), The Undoing (2020, miniseries) and many more. He passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

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Born in Detroit, Michigan, Corman had a sprawling, intellectually hungry life as a youth and young man before arriving with his first film in 1955, Five Guns West. He would follow that with titles such as Apache Woman, It Conquered the World, Attack of the Crab Monsters, Teenage Cave Man, A Bucket of Blood, House of Usher, The Little Shop of Horrors, The Pit and the Pendulum, The Intruder, The Raven, The Terror, The Masque of Red Death, The Tomb of Ligeia, The Wild Angels, The Trip, Bloody Mama and many more. As a producer he was behind almost 500 films. Arguably among the most important filmmakers of the 20th century, Corman passed away at age 98. R.I.P.

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2/05/2022

Henry Poole Is Here (2008) or, Faith in Sunny California

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