Becca Hornick--Outside Movie

Henry Poole is Here
This movie was stocked full of religion. But before I go into all of those I want to talk about a theme that I found in the coloring of the film. Henry was always wearing blue or blue gray. The movie was filmed in blue tones and all but a few of the main characters wore blue tones for most of the movie, even his house was blue. So blue was a very important color in that movie, even when someone wasn’t wearing blue, blue was still important because by them wearing different colors you knew they were important because they weren’t in blue.
The premise of the movie is that Luke Wilson’s character Henry is told by doctors that he only has so long left to live, that he is dying. So he moves back to the neighborhood that he grew up in and then things start to change for him. When he moves in he is greeted by his neighbor Esperanza (which is Spanish for hope), and she is one of the characters who never wears blue. She finds the face of Jesus of the side of his house in a water stain, and believes that it is a sign. Henry who has moved to the house to slink away from the world, to be alone and quietly die, gets really frustrated by her. She starts bringing people to his yard to pray to the Jesus figure and that really sets him off because he can’t see the image, he won’t see the image. Henry also goes to the grocery store a lot to buy vodka and junk food and the girl who always checks him out at the register her name is Patience and she is always so sweet to Henry trying to brighten his day. Later on Patience ends up going to his wall and touching it and her eye sight is restored (because she has really bad eyes, not completely blind but legally blind). His other neighbor Dawn, has a young daughter named Millie that doesn’t talk, not because she is mute but because she chooses not to. All these characters have complicated backgrounds just like Henry does, and they all come together to change Henry’s life because of one thing in common, Jesus’ face on Henry’s wall.
The movie is about hope, and patience, and a belief that a higher power in the world can change things around. All the characters have struggles and sorrows in their lives, but they all deal with them differently and that’s why some of them wear blue and why some of them don’t. The movie shows that you can approach life and all of its ups and downs with open arms and faith, or you can retreat into a dark cave and wallow your way through in misery. In the end Henry’s life completely changes for the better and you see him stop wearing blue, which purposes a question to the audience…when will you stop wearing blue?