DQGladstone Luke Wilson is hard not to like. I've tried to dislike him but he slipped by me.I wish this film had maintained a more consistent comic tone. I think if JD Salinger had been on the set, he would have said, "hey, can we throw some jokes here near the end?" At the beginning of the film, I like when Luke chastises the ladies for their trespasses, then he singles out the old woman and they cut to her. It seems to break the damn "tone" of the film but I liked it anyway.Not much later, he and the little girl are in the yard and he makes a joke WHICH SHE DOESN'T LAUGH AT, that "he has to go/he's busy" then he hops on the stationary bike. This is a sophisticated joke, very dry and subtle to deal to a little girl and it suggests that he's respecting her intelligence. She doesn't laugh and neither does he. Of course, she's "mute" but she also doesn't FAKE laugh, to indicate that she gets it. Neither does he. That's a nice moment. Also nice because he's depressed out of his skull but the girl brings intentional humor out of him. It's hard for a kid to dislike an adult who doesn't insult their intelligence as it's hard not to like a kid who shuts up once in a while.Then there's the bit about the clumsy blood-taker. Unnecessary but still appreciated, trying to keep it light.This is an ambitious film that tries to say a lot with music, light, some video-style editing, sun and memory. All the indy music was a bit much but who am I to criticize indy music? Nobody, that's who.Esperanza Martinez, who plays the irritating neighbor, is so good I sometimes wanted to kill her and wished Luke would, she was so damn irritating.When Luke woke up in the hospital and found Esperanza, if he had just called for security, I'd have been more happy.I just wish the film hadn't lost it's sense of humor somewhere along the line.

Topgallant Caveat: This review may contain some spoilers. However, I'll keep it vague and I promise not to reveal any plot or story twists.I'm not a religious person per se but I do on occasion like a spiritually uplifting movie. Is this that type of movie? Well, sort of. Let's put it this way, it has a spiritual message. But getting there is a bit of a downer.The movie is about a guy who moves into a rental house that's a few houses down from the one in which he grew up. To say this guy is depressed is like saying Homer's Odyssey is a story about a boat trip. The thing is, this guy wants to be left alone. He wants to sit in his rental house and stare at the walls. He's short on patience, and he's quite rude to his neighbors and some of the people he meets in town.Obviously, and you realize this right away, this movie is about a person who is about to go through a character arc, and with all character arcs, something needs to happen to trigger the transformation. The 'something' in this story turns out to be what one neighbor -- and soon the whole neighborhood -- believes is the image of Jesus in a stucco stain on the side of the main character's house.I actually liked this movie. I'm a fan of Luke Wilson, and I thought the supporting cast did a terrific job. This is a slow, purposeful movie with a strong spiritual and even a religious side to it. I won't give away the ending except to say that I think it does something unintended. On the face of it, it delivers spiritually and religiously, but it does so in a way that makes you question the depths of the main character's true motivation. Was he simply depressed because of his situation, or was something else going on in his head? For me, when the movie ended and I thought about it a little, I realized it was all allegory.Bob

Germain Grisez Henry Poole Is Here is an unusual film. Someone characterized it as a "black comedy," but I think that description misses the mark. Instead, it represents the drama of modern unbelief and genuine religious faith. In the face of imminent death, Henry Poole's unbelief is entirely honest with itself, and so results in his despair and lonely alienation. His Hispanic neighbor's genuine faith and her and others' compassionate caring for Henry challenge his unbelief. Remarkably, this film presents a Catholic priest behaving just as he should, with prudence about what his parishioner thinks is a miraculous and appropriate and respectful pastoral concern for Henry Poole. In the end, faith and love win out, supported by a series of events such that at least one of them--the restoration of good vision to the check-out lady--could reasonably be regarded as a miracle. While many committed nonbelievers naturally are offended by that plot and its message, believers ought to be grateful to those who made this movie.

muaddib-20 All right, so I freely admit being that horrid creature, a European socialist, and actually even a long standing militant atheist. Whilst enjoying my free health benefits, never to be achieved in the USA, thanks to the health insurance lobbies and to many Republicans and some corrupt Democrat, I found this movie very good and not a religious propaganda one. The Devil's Advocate, now, trying to affirm the Devil as a real entity (and in the US, he is of course incarnate into a lawyer) that was probably paid for truly by Vatican funds, but this, no... This is a movie about living in the present (if anything this is Zen, not at all Catholic, the basic tenet of Catholics being: suffer now, get a prize later..), about how even misguided people may have positive feelings, how death in a predominantly Protestant culture like the contemporary USA is something people are unable to deal with, how the "good neighbourhood" tradition and customs may occasionally appear empty of meaning. It may make you think and perhaps cry (I did both). Well done!