Sundance. Henry Poole Is Here.

"Henry Poole is Here has the undeniable power of a sentimental pop song, and much of its mood comes from which songs were chosen for the handful of interludes," writes Rob Davis for Paste. "Rather than being embellishment, the musical montages may be this film's spine, and whether I roll my eyes at one more tender music video or tear up like a baby probably depends a lot on how fried my nerves are going in.... It's a sweet and simple movie, dumb as a concrete culvert and unexplainably touching."

"Because it's billed as a more personal project for Mark Pellington after a string of interesting, idiosyncratic thrillers (Arlington Road, The Mothman Prophecies), Henry Poole Is Here is all the more disappointing," writes Robert Koehler in Variety. "Pic's tendency to lecture on the power of faith and religion and on the demerits of science seems to assume an almost childlike audience that needs to be spoon-fed Pablum. This tale of a single man whose medical death sentence is reversed in part by a neighborhood of believers won't advance the profile of the always-likable Luke Wilson, and Christian moviegoers will have to show up in great numbers to keep the film from being doomed to something far less than sleeper status."

"Because his grief and search for meaning was rendered so sincerely, I felt the filmmaker was still giving me the respect to decide for myself," writes Michael Ryan in Hammer to Nail. "Some may 'choose to believe,' others like myself will remain skeptical."

John Horn talks with Pellington for the Los Angeles Times. Following the death of his wife in 2004, "Pellington first let go of a movie he was scheduled to direct (Firewall with Harrison Ford). 'I couldn't get out of bed, let alone direct a movie,' he says. Then, after a long recovery and meetings with bereavement groups, he started reexamining screenplays he had considered making, looking for more humanistic stories. 'My personal experience,' he says, 'had changed me.'"

Posted by dwhudson at February 2, 2008 12:48 PM