Reflection:
Henry Poole is here is a story about a very sad person that becomes a little less sad at the end of the movie. One of the bigger aspects of the film is that of the existence of God. Henry Poole, as you know, lives in a house which has been graced with the face of Jesus. This is according to his neighbor Esperanza. Henry neither sees the face nor believes that him interacting with the wall will cure him of his terminal illness. An effect like this was often only seen in “chick flicks“ like You’ve Got Mail. In that movie, Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan almost cross paths in their day-to-day lives so often that it leaves the audience screaming at their TVs. This movie has a rather predictable outcome: despite the wall healing people around him like Patience and Millie, Henry doesn’t believe in the wall’s powers until the end of the movie, in time to save his life and leave him with his new gal pal. The predictable nature of the plot is in the filmmaker’s favor here, similar to You’ve Got Mail, the audience has a pretty good idea of how the movie is going to end. Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks get together, and Henry Poole is healed by the magic nature of the wall...or God. This allows the filmmaker to create this moment’s where it would be so easy for Henry to touch the wall, so easy to cure him of his disease, but he doesn’t. This gives the audience the urge to yell at Henry to touch the wall, much like when they yelled at Tom Hanks to turn around when he sat behind Meg Ryan.
Just in case anyone was wondering, I have never actually seen You’ve Got Mail. I just kind of know what happens.
Connection:
The connection of how God is portrayed in the movie is similar to our discussions in class. During the movie, people have to touch the wall in order to receive the healing power that the wall gives off. Though Henry is literally encapsulated in “God’s love”(because his house has walls, that surround him), he never get’s the benefits of it until he believes the wall is real. That time is when he gets healed by the wall, or God. This scene explains that the only thing that Henry needed to do was believe in the power of the wall, and once he did, and touched the wall, he becomes healthy. This is a rather Christian, more specifically Catholic, view of how God operates. Through my teachings in Catholicism, I have been told that the most important thing that you can do to be sent to heaven, is to accept God as your only savior. This is mirrored in Henry Poole’s story, once he believed in the power of the wall, he was saved by it.
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