DVD & Blu-ray Review: Henry Poole is Here (2008)

Overture Films & Anchor Bay Entertainment's
"Modern Day Fable"
Miraculously Materializes on
Blu-ray & DVD on 1/20/09

An Introduction

Although admittedly Henry Poole is Here was one of my least favorite films of 2008 as I didn't quite buy into the contrivances set forth, I definitely admired its intention and great heart in trying to craft a film that would provide hope and encouragement during a dark time, even if the result was less than stellar.

Despite its uneven result and mixed critical and audience reception, this sleeper work garnered enough support from its target demographic which was no doubt bolstered when the film received one of the year's Heartland Truly Moving Picture Awards.

While I still greatly prefer Overture Pictures' more subtle works of positivity and friendship including last year's magnificent The Visitor (one of the very best of '08) and the late '08 and early '09 (depending on your city) offering, Last Chance Harvey (which also received the Heartland Award), the most satisfying element that Poole has going for it is in its terrific portrayal by its leading actor, Luke Wilson.

Always underrated yet able to slip in and out of comedy and drama as he did in the works made with his brother Owen and friend Wes Anderson including Bottle Rocket, Rushmore, and The Royal Tenenbaums-- he keeps the film from sinking as Poole's true anchor and will hopefully impress future directors that there's much more to the handsome Texan than the endless roles as "the boyfriend" which he played in Charlie's Angels, Legally Blonde, My Super Ex-Girlfriend, and countless others.

On behalf of the film's release to DVD and Blu-ray, Anchor Bay Entertainment was kind enough to send both formats my way for a second look. While my response to the film itself remains unchanged, I'll evaluate the technical aspects of the discs following a reprint of my original review below in this two-part post.

I. The Film

Original Theatrical Film Review:
Henry Poole is Here
8/15/08

Director:
Mark Pellington

If your house is made of stucco, run like the wind.

After getting his start directing some of the '90s most recognizable and lauded music videos, including Pearl Jam’s controversial MTV award-winning “Jeremy” and U2’s moving “One,” film critics took note of director Mark Pellington with his 1999 paranoid, terrorism chiller Arlington Road starring Jeff Bridges and Tim Robbins. In fact, in retrospect it seems all the eerier for having been released just two years before 9/11.

Following up Road with the lukewarm new age thriller The Mothman Prophecies, which pegged him squarely in the same genre territory as M. Night Shyamalan, later Pellington was offered the cruelest twist of fate in his personal life when he unexpectedly lost his beloved wife in 2004.

Understandably driven to a deep depression and suffering post-trauma in trying to cope and raise his daughter at the same time, according to journalist John Horn, Pellington “started reexamining screenplays he had earlier considered making, looking for more humanistic stories.”

While it’s an admirable decision and indeed American audiences are hungry for more genuine “people movers” such as The Truman Show, Stranger Than Fiction, and Pleasantville, unfortunately Pellington made a poor choice in source material by committing to the overly preachy, heavy-handed, and condescending Henry Poole Is Here, penned by screenwriter Albert Torres.

Despite this, it benefits greatly from the emotionally effective performance of its lead Luke Wilson, working in a similar vein as his character in The Royal Tenenbaums. As the film opens, Wilson — who serves as Poole’s anchor as the misty-eyed, titular sad puppy — purchases a bland suburban home in Los Angeles from the perpetually sunny realtor played by Cheryl Hines (Curb Your Enthusiasm) in an upbeat portrayal that seems modeled on a stereotypical combination of cheerleader, Avon lady, dental hygienist, and flight attendant.

However, in spite of her pesky perkiness, her brief presence is especially welcome, in stark contrast to the overwhelmingly depressed, unkempt, unshaven, heavy drinking and doughnut-eating Henry Poole who, due to easy to foreshadow circumstances, shares that he isn’t planning on living there long. And indeed Hines is desperately missed after her character vanishes and she’s replaced by Oscar nominated Babel star Adriana Barraza as his well-intentioned busybody neighbor Esperanza, who sets the ridiculous plot in motion when she catches a glimpse of a mysterious water stain amidst the stucco siding of Henry’s house and decides that it is the face of God.

Logically irritated, Poole who is adamant about living his life in solitude, is soon overwhelmed by not only Esperanza’s routine visits but other members of his community and her church (including her priest played by George Lopez) after a drop of what seems to be blood appears in the stucco. And the floodgates open even wider when miraculous events start occurring in his seemingly ordinary neighborhood after people touch his wall.

However, whatever one’s individual religious beliefs may be, the film quickly goes from intriguingly quirky to obnoxiously pious. In addition it ridicules those who believe in the importance of science with the incessant phrasing that everything that happens to you is within your control "if you believe" and likewise your misfortune is your own fault if you don't. (Oh yes, try telling that to someone with cancer or using that explanation to sum up the Holocaust or genocide happening around the world.) It's a cruel sentiment to both those who have suffered and a cruel stereotype of the "religious" depicted as Pellington's film gives a bad name to believers and non-believers alike.

This is especially evident as characters given obvious names such as Patience (played by a likable Rachel Seiferth) and Dawn (Melinda and Melinda's Radha Mitchell) along with the wearying Esperanza condescend to the audience repeatedly. And soon it’s hard to tell the characters apart due to the dialogue as they begin delivering their homily-styled speeches, quoting Noam Chomsky and citing Gorbachev. As written, the women all sound like dogmatically propagandist character cut-outs — or worse, door-to-door converters or airport preachers — rather than fully fleshed out human beings, sharing their own experiences about faith or spirituality in a way that seems at all believable, genuine, and/or admirable.

Although he hesitates to call Poole “a religious film,” correctly arguing that “there's a separation for me between religion and spirituality,” unfortunately as a film Poole is unable to convey Pellington’s assertion. Instead, it presents itself as a truly transparent morality tale that would even be a bit too contrived to play as an effective Sunday school lesson, let alone offering a compelling or intriguing enough arc to make a worthwhile, quality mainstream film.

In predictably going from one contrived plot point to the next, Poole manages to provoke shaking heads and unintentional giggles by its complete lack of respect for the audience’s intelligence. Additionally, it forgoes any attempt to legitimately and admirably inspire viewers by constantly telling us what to think and how to feel as if it’s a sermon, instead of the Capraesque work it’s aspiring to be.

A rambling mess of a movie — while it’s painful to criticize a work that came from such a personal place for the talented Pellington — ultimately by forcing us through “therapy” rather than leading us through a journey of humanity, he managed to make something one can’t label religious, spiritual or hopeful but just woefully ill-conceived and nearly unbearable, save for Luke Wilson.

II. The Blu-ray & DVD

As the film is predominantly set in what Henry Poole's press release describes as a "cookie cutter house in a drab, middle-class, L.A. neighborhood," the film's cinematographic color scheme is noticeably muted and dulled on both the DVD and Blu-ray but the Blu's quality is predictably superior, offering excellent flesh tone color (almost too close as we can see every single stubble of hair on Henry's face).

And, since the film's visual look is supposed to be bland overall, there isn't a very large difference between the formats but the sound clarity on the Blu-ray heightens the experience as we hear every subtle effect in the overly quiet film in crystal digital clarity.

While typically the special features offered on both are the same, there are some distinct differences with the two. Boasting a feature-length audio commentary with the director and screenwriter, a fifteen minute making of featurette (which serves as a near love letter to Wilson's blend of Jack Lemmon and Jimmy Stewart like aura), a music video for "All Roads Lead Home," and a theatrical trailer, the Blu-ray additionally offers a second audio commentary with Pellington and cinematographer Eric Schmidt as well as BD-live enabled features such as deleted scenes with optional commentary and more exclusives. However, the DVD does dish up one extra not found on the Blu in the "Henry Poole is Here" music video performed by the film's Myspace.com Song-Writing Contest Winner Ron Irizarry.

New on DVD for the Week of 11/23/08

DVD Pick of the Week:

Bottle Rocket

Bottle Rocket [Criterion Collection]

Composing the Beatles Songbook: Lennon & McCartney (1966-1970)

Fred Claus

Hancock

The Kingdom [Blu-ray]

Meet Dave

Space Chimps

Other New Arrivals

Henry Poole Is Here (2008)

If your house is made of stucco, run like the wind.

Director:
Mark Pellington

After getting his start directing some of the '90’s most recognizable and lauded music videos, including Pearl Jam’s controversial MTV award-winning “Jeremy” and U2’s moving “One,” film critics took note of director Mark Pellington with his 1999 paranoid, terrorism chiller Arlington Road starring Jeff Bridges and Tim Robbins. In fact, in retrospect it seems all the eerier for having been released just two years before 9/11.

Following up Road with the lukewarm new age thriller The Mothman Prophecies, which pegged him squarely in the same genre territory as M. Night Shyamalan, later Pellington was offered the cruelest twist of fate in his personal life when he unexpectedly lost his beloved wife in 2004. Understandably driven to a deep depression and suffering post-trauma in trying to cope and raise his daughter at the same time, according to journalist John Horn, Pellington “started reexamining screenplays he had earlier considered making, looking for more humanistic stories.”

While it’s an admirable decision and indeed American audiences are hungry for more genuine “people movers” such as The Truman Show, Stranger Than Fiction, and Pleasantville, unfortunately Pellington made a poor choice in source material by committing to the overly preachy, heavy-handed, and condescending Henry Poole Is Here, penned by screenwriter Albert Torres.

Despite this, it benefits greatly from the emotionally effective performance of its lead Luke Wilson, working in a similar vein as his character in The Royal Tenenbaums. As the film opens, Wilson — who serves as Poole’s anchor as the misty-eyed, titular sad puppy — purchases a bland suburban home in Los Angeles from the perpetually sunny realtor played by Cheryl Hines in an upbeat portrayal that seems modeled on a stereotypical combination of cheerleader, Avon lady, dental hygienist, and flight attendant. However, in spite of her pesky perkiness, her brief presence is especially welcome, in stark contrast to the overwhelmingly depressed, unkempt, unshaven, heavy drinking and doughnut-eating Henry Poole who, due to easy to foreshadow circumstances, shares that he isn’t planning on living there long. And indeed Hines is desperately missed after her character vanishes and she’s replaced by Oscar nominated Babel star Adriana Barraza as his well-intentioned busybody neighbor Esperanza, who sets the ridiculous plot in motion when she catches a glimpse of a mysterious water stain amidst the stucco siding of Henry’s house and decides that it is the face of God.

Logically irritated, Poole who is adamant about living his life in solitude, is soon overwhelmed by not only Esperanza’s routine visits but other members of his community and her church (including her priest played by George Lopez) after a drop of what seems to be blood appears in the stucco. And the floodgates open even wider when miraculous events start occurring in his seemingly ordinary neighborhood after people touch his wall. However, whatever one’s individual religious beliefs may be, the film quickly goes from intriguingly quirky to obnoxiously pious. In addition it ridicules those who believe in the importance of science with the incessant phrasing that everything that happens to you is within your control "if you believe" and likewise your misfortune is your own fault if you don't. (Oh yes, try telling that to someone with cancer or using that explanation to sum up the Holocaust or genocide happening around the world.) It's a cruel sentiment to both those who have suffered and a cruel stereotype of the "religious" depicted as Pellington's film gives a bad name to believers and non-believers alike.

This is especially evident as characters given obvious names such as Patience (played by a likable Rachel Seiferth) and Dawn (Radha Mitchell) along with the wearying Esperanza condescend to the audience. And soon it’s hard to tell the characters apart due to the dialogue as they begin delivering their homily-styled speeches, quoting Noam Chomsky and citing Gorbachev. As written, the women all sound like dogmatically propagandist character cut-outs — or worse, door-to-door converters or airport preachers — rather than fully fleshed out human beings, sharing their own experiences about faith or spirituality in a way that seem at all believable, genuine, and/or admirable.

Although he hesitates to call Poole “a religious film,” correctly arguing that “there's a separation for me between religion and spirituality,” unfortunately as a film Poole is unable to convey Pellington’s assertion. Instead, it presents itself as a truly transparent morality tale that would even be a bit too contrived to play as an effective Sunday school lesson, let alone offering a compelling or intriguing enough arc to make a worthwhile, quality mainstream film.

In predictably going from one contrived plot point to the next, Poole manages to provoke shaking heads and unintentional giggles by its complete lack of respect for the audience’s intelligence. Additionally, it forgoes any attempt to legitimately and admirably inspire viewers by constantly telling us what to think and how to feel as if it’s a sermon, instead of the Capraesque work it’s aspiring to be.

A rambling mess of a movie — while it’s painful to criticize a work that came from such a personal place for the talented Pellington — ultimately by forcing us through “therapy” rather than leading us through a journey of humanity, he managed to make something one can’t label religious, spiritual or hopeful but just woefully ill-conceived and nearly unbearable, save for Wilson.

Idiocracy

Director:
Mike Judge

Most of the time, I criticize the validity and artistic morals of test screenings that often send nervous studios and directors scrambling to call their actors back to reshoot new material and delete possibly objectionable scenes in order to try and please everyone. While film indeed is a collaborative medium, I’m not sure that rounding up participants from a mall parking lot and screening a movie they may have very little interest in, only to force them to rate each and every aspect of it is the right way to decide what works and what doesn’t. I am a frequent attendee at advanced screenings but seldom participate in test audience events because art shouldn’t be that much of a democracy and we’re forgetting that people spend years developing what’s onscreen for us to pass judgment on within minutes (or sometimes seconds).

However, in the case of Idiocracy which had according to IMDb “disastrous” test screenings, the reaction was sadly warranted and sent Fox Studios into retreat, hiding the reels for more than one year before quietly dumping it into just six markets with very little advertising.

The film had all the promise of a hit—a wonderfully creative premise, hot star Luke Wilson, and being helmed by director Mike Judge of Office Space fame but somewhere along the way they opted entirely for crass over class, lewd over shrewd, and ended up with a movie one can only describe as ugly. It shouldn’t have been this way and in retrospect, I still admire the ingenious set-up which finds under-achieving and statistically average army librarian Luke Wilson, along with prostitute Maya Rudolph being selected for a year-long experiment that would cause the two participants to sleep for an entire year to hopefully save their brightest down the road for them to be all they can be.

The experiment goes off without a hitch although warning flags are raised when the doctor becomes much too fascinated with the pimp lifestyle discovered when recruiting Rudolph and after he’s arrested and the base is forced to close, Wilson and Rudolph are forgotten about for five hundred years. They awaken to discover that the progressive dumbing down of America weaned on video games, sports drinks, that favors brawn over brains has made the country run rampant with idiots unable to speak coherently and prefer instead to sit on lazy boys which double as toilets while watching shows that consist entirely of guys getting hit in the crotch with a variety of implements for laughs.

Although intellectuals and academics have been speculating on the nightly news and in publications that we’re headed in the wrong direction with our fast food styled entertainment and life of convenience over substance, once we actually see this life produced onscreen, we realize that it’s so disgusting, it’s not one we’d like to spend even five minutes in let alone the entire running time of a feature film.

Idiocracy would have made a hilarious short film or an even superior story, although it does beg to mind the question that perhaps Judge’s fans, already preferring visuals to the written word, may never have read it in the first place, thus making his point without their intention.

Blonde Ambition

Director:
Scott Marshall

Luke Wilson must have a thing for blondes—from romancing Reese in Legally Blonde to trying to make time with ambitious Jessica Simpson in Blonde Ambition, he’s always the scruffy, sheepish, downright puppy-eyed cutie whose eyes are on the golden haired prize. A smash box office hit in Ukraine that’s outdone the exceptional yet admittedly depressive American exports of No Country for Old Men, There Will Be Blood and others, Blonde bombed so monumentally here in the U.S. even in Wilson and Simpson’s home state of Texas that it ended up making its national premiere at video stores near you. With Simpson’s weak performances in past films and its failure here in the states, I was expecting to hate it but was actually surprised that it wasn’t as horrible as one would think and I even caught myself laughing more than I would have guessed.

Similar to the Paltrow vehicle View From the Top that seems like a film out of time and one that would’ve faired better in the 60’s, this dimwitted yet unceasingly sunny offering finds country bumpkin Katie Gregerstich (Simpson playing a character whose name alone will make you laugh) leaving her general store running Pap Paw (Willie Nelson) to visit her boyfriend in the Big Apple, only to discover that the hand modeling hottie (Drew Fuller) is as deceitful and conceited as he is attractive when another woman creeps out from under his bed’s covers. After gathering herself and going to stay with her aspiring actress cousin Haley (Rachael Leigh Cook who’s the best part of the film), Katie is manipulated by a power hungry construction vice president (Penelope Ann Miller) and her goofy sycophant (Andy Dick who also costarred in Simpson’s Employee of the Month) when she gains employment as the administrative assistant to company president Richard Connelly (Larry Miller). Although the unsuspecting Gregerstich is sabotaged at every turn in amusing ways that range from Miller and Dick getting kids hopped up on Rock Star energy drinks and sending stripper cops to a children’s birthday party complete with a firecracker spewing piñata to trying to form a bad impression on Norwegian priests who instead get a kick out of Katie and go bar hopping with beer and karaoke, she mostly succeeds in her goal and becomes the recipient of a flirtation from courier Ben (Luke Wilson).

However, some of the film’s juvenile humor, not to mention the poor acting skills of Simpson that seem to be exacerbated by the frequent usage of close-ups and distractingly tarty makeup of garish red lipstick and electric blue eyeshadow that accentuate her freakishly Aquafresh whitened teeth (which becomes a joke throughout the film) calls far too much attention to itself and less time should’ve been spent on Simpson’s looks to carry the film and more on keeping things light and fun. Director Scott Marshall, who is the son of Garry Marshall with whom he’d worked as an assistant director on several films casts his aunt Penny Marshall in a tiny cameo near the end. While it won't be nearly as popular here as in Ukraine, Simpson's film will appeal strongly to her fan base and may even surprise a few viewers like myself, who don't even come close to falling into that category. Of course, it will also do well with men like Luke Wilson who may soon need a twelve step program for blondes!