Sometimes it takes more than faith

It would take a miracle to save "Henry Poole Is Here" from the funky, sleepwalking dreariness of its pacing.

Ironically, it offers just such a miracle, but despite its good intentions, this strange little film never really stirs either trauma or hope.

Luke Wilson, the Wilson who was once perceived as the "leading-man" type as opposed to his comedic brother Owen, plays the titular character in such a morose, downtrodden way that we wonder, for moments at a time, about what ails him. He buys a rundown dump of a house and tells the neighbors he won't be there for long. He lives mainly on vodka, purchased from a local grocery store where a clerk named Patience (Rachel Seiferth) in thick eyeglasses worries about him.

He mopes. He's unshaven, but with just a bit of fashionable stubble. To actor Wilson, an appropriate way to suggest world weariness is to mumble.

He looks at all times as if he's constipated - and mightily miffed about it. Then, somewhere along the way, we learn he has been diagnosed as being terminally ill. This should up the ante. After all, it's enough, perhaps, to justify all this darkness.

The trouble is his character is never developed. We don't know what job he might have had. We know there was a woman in his life, but don't know if he was ever married. (If I missed that, forgive me. I was looking for clues but may have fuzzed out owing to boredom). The one thing we know is that his mother and father argued and he, as a teen, sometimes ran off to the dried-out Los Angeles "river," where he felt safe. It's something, but not much.

Then Adriana Barraza, the one spark of life in the film, comes on as his busybody neighbor and claims that the water stain on his stucco wall looks like the face of Jesus. George Lopez, as a priest, shows up. So does an angelic-looking girl from next door who hasn't spoken a word since her father ran off. So does Patience, the near-blind grocery clerk. Predictably, more than miraculously, they are all cured.

Still, Henry has doubt -enough doubt to make the movie run way too long. He's surly about the intrusions upon his privacy.

We don't know much more about the attractive woman next door or her mute daughter, posed rather than played by Morgan Lily. They exist in a vacuum, coming from nowhere but going, we know, to Henry.

It is interesting, though, that at last here is a lone, if low-budgeted, film that at least acknowledges the piety of the Roman Catholic faith. Catholicism has been getting rough treatment from Hollywood for several years now. There was a time when movies like "The Nun's Story" (1959) were huge box office hits and "Going My Way" (1944) won Oscars.

It is entirely unclear how seriously the filmmakers want us to take the miracle. It is clear, though, that they don't give us much with which to work.

Since so few films are made with spiritual themes, it is with regret that we knock this one, but even though the spirit is willing, the script is just too weak.

Mal Vincent, (757) 446-2347, mal.vincent@pilotonline.com