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Henry Poole Is Here | 2008 | PG | - 2.3.4

After being diagnosed with an incurable disease, Henry Poole (Luke Wilson) leaves his fiancée and successful business and returns to the street where he grew up in order to live, in his own way, the six remaining weeks in his life. However, the discovery of what some of his neighbors consider a religious miracle interrupts Poole's solitude. Also with Cheryl Hines, George Lopez, Adriana Barazza and Rahad Mitchell. Directed by Mark Pellington. [1:41]

SEX/NUDITY 2 - A man and a woman kiss briefly three times and hug briefly a few times. A woman hugs a younger man and kisses his cheek (no sexuality is suggested).
 Two different women wear deeply cut v-neck blouses that reveal a little cleavage. A woman wears dresses that are low-cut and reveal cleavage.

VIOLENCE/GORE 3 - A man becomes increasing exasperated with people gathering in his backyard to view a "holy apparition" in a stain on a wall of his house; he becomes angry, shouts, and hits the wall with a sledge hammer, destroying the stain and causing the corner of the house to collapse on top of him (he is covered by rubble). A man shouts at four women for being in his backyard and placing candles and flowers as a shrine at the foot of a stained wall.
 A man visits a doctor's office and in the examination room a young assistant misses a vein while taking a blood sample (we see the needle go into the arm three times without a trace of blood; then we see the needle being pushed into the arm and the syringe filling with blood).
 A man lies in a hospital bed with a scraped chin, a scrape on his cheek and a small red cut on his forehead, he gets up, walks down the hall with his IV attached, people try to stop him, he pushes past them and collapses.
 A man and a woman shout at each other over whether a stain on the wall of his house is an answer to the woman's prayer or a coincidence. A man has a disagreement with a realtor that wants to fix up his house for him. A man and a woman have a short disagreement about whether to pursue a relationship, since he says he's dying.
 A man explains that his parents fought often when he was a child and that he would run away to hide in the culverts under a bridge. A man in a doctor's office hears that he has only 6 weeks to live because he has a disease "That steamrolls through the body"; he goes out to the street, cries very briefly, grimaces, and looks sweaty and lost. A woman visits a man in his new home and says that she found the former homeowner dead in the kitchen, having lain there 12 hours before she found him. A woman and a man discuss psychological conditions briefly, including depression and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder as they wonder why her little girl did not talk for a year.
 A girl stands close to a stain on the wall of a house, and the stain has what looks like a blood splotch on it. A red substance drips from a stain on the wall of a house (we never see or hear what the substance is).
 A man frightens a girl as he tries to say hello to her several times; each time she runs away silently and hides. A man stands before an image on the exterior wall of his home, cries and reaches out to touch it, but pulls back before doing so.

LANGUAGE 4 - 3 scatological references, 2 mild obscenities, 3 religious profanities, 31 religious exclamations, name-calling (crazy, insane, nasty Holy Shoulder, Holy Roller, nosy neighbor, crazy church people, freak).

SUBSTANCE USE - A man purchases two bottles of tequila and we see him drinking later, a man drinks wine in a few scenes, a man drinks wine from the bottle, a man and a woman drink wine with dinner, a man purchases 6 bottles of vodka and 2 bottles of wine, a man opens his refrigerator and we see that it is filled with bottles of beer, in a kitchen 3 wine bottles are on a counter, and we see a bottle of champagne on a kitchen counter. A man buys several gallons of bleach at the market and the cashier asks him if he is going to use it as a drink mixer.

DISCUSSION TOPICS - Terminal illness, choices, attitudes, beliefs, relationships, fear and loneliness, solitude, neighbors, suburbia, religious views, the psychological component of illness, coincidence, miracles, healing.

MESSAGE - There is always hope.

(Note: Throughout the film, there are several arguments about faith and Christianity being the answer to all problems, and arguments that scientific and medical findings are not; a non-believer is pressed to make a choice to believe in supernatural healing, leading to arguments and heated discussions. There are also comments about fundamentalist faith and a statement against atheism, claiming that atheists are nasty people.)

CAVEATS

Be aware that while we do our best to avoid spoilers it is impossible to disguise all details and some may reveal crucial plot elements.

We've gone through several editorial changes since we started covering films in 1992 and older reviews are not as complete & accurate as recent ones; we plan to revisit and correct older reviews as resources and time permits.

Our ratings and reviews are based on the theatrically-released versions of films; on video there are often Unrated, Special, Director's Cut or Extended versions, (usually accurately labelled but sometimes mislabeled) released that contain additional content, which we did not review.


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