Entertainment

HENRY THE FAITH

LUKE Wilson is Henry Poole, a guy who just wants to be left alone to drink himself into a miserable stupor in his tract house. But life – not to men tion his new neighbors – just won’t let that happen. Especially after the face of Christ shows up in a water stain on the new stucco job on Henry’s house.

This lighthearted fantasy about life, death, fate and faith comes from director Mark Pellington, a man who lost his young wife in 2004.

Looking for meaning, Pellington dug up an old script, which morphed into this one about Henry, a man whose doctor (Richard Benjamin) tells him he’s got a horrible disease.

We never find out what it is, but, oddly, he never seems to develop anything worse than a hangover. To make himself more miserable, Henry buys a rundown house in a cookie-cutter neighborhood in California where he plans to do nothing but feel bad.

Instead, neighbor Esperanza (Adriana Barraza) comes by and discovers a water stain on the house’s stucco job that looks like Christ’s face. She tries to convince Henry to let the priest (George Lopez) and a few friends into the yard to worship at the stain.

In the meantime, another neighbor, the beautiful Dawn (Radha Mitchell), has a little daughter, Millie (Morgan Lily), who looks like a Keane painting but who doesn’t speak.

The film is peppered with many nosy, well-meaning characters, such as Patience the grocery bagger (Rachel Seiferth), who may have bad eyesight but is filled with insight.

Soon the stain becomes a neighborhood attraction, while Dawn and sad Henry develop an attraction of their own. Does the stain save the day – or is a stain just a stain? That depends on your faith, because the movie’s ending is a lousy copout that isn’t going to help you answer that question.

Yes, “Henry Poole” is sappy and corny, but there are a few lovely moments. Plus, the score’s great and the performances are outstanding. Wilson is wonderful, and Barraza, who got an Oscar nom for “Babel,” is terrific, while newcomer Seiferth is simply sensational.

If you’re a sucker for a New Age-meets-old-time-religion tale and you have nothing else to do this weekend, then this one’s for you. Everyone else should stay home – but don’t go washing the walls, because, well, you never know.