Director Mark Pellington wants to employ his camera symbolically (a potential lover stands behind a chain link fence; a wall separates Henry and a Priest (George Lopez)), but this obviousness often feels contrived. Still, he and Director of Photography, Eric Schmidt, well-use the suburban landscape, creating a couple of pretty shots, notably a juxtaposition of Wilson’s worn face against a sun-drenched Californian sky. As well, an intelligently placed shot of the moon has an esoteric appeal (the moon is a good place to see shapes that may or may not exist).

Wisely, stucco Jesus never gets a close-up and the visual vagueness – unlike the script’s ambiguity – works. At turns brief glimpses of the stain look like a martyred carpenter, a water mark, and, for a brief second, an alien (though apropos, that may have been in my head; look for it).

Uncertainty befits the depiction of the wall-bound carpenter and that subtlety would have translated well to other aspects of the film. For instance, the audience need not be overtly told that Poole is a Jesus figure (his grooming habits would have sufficed). Furthermore, the intrusive and whimsical score creates a distractingly incongruent tonality. Ultimately, though, the fence sitting, recognizable tropes, and unrealized arguments strike Henry Poole is Here down. -S.T.