it's a religious movie,

just wasn't marketed that way to attract a bigger audience. Presumably to not be waved off as some Sunday morning special.


The issue to me, as a raised catholic but unbeliever, isn't that i hate that this film but rather that I was really huckstered into watching it. Thought it was gunna be like one of those sleeping through life kind of movies where the fish out of water is stirred back to life (IE Gardenstate). Just was very fvcking pissed when I got a pedantic miracle pusher. Music was good though, bit sit-comy.

I didn't enjoy this movie on a critical level not only due to my outlook on cosmology, but just predictability and seemingly false advertising in the description.
AN ASIDE, as a movie watcher the gimmick of a deus ex machina is that to be abhorred. Like the eagles in the LOTR, you just say "WTF, man." Sam and Frodo are rescued by intervening forces arbitrarily. (Also a plot-hole, but whatever)

I suppose having the premise of a superficial theological movie involves the very definition of a DEM but still, the story was very predictable and unenjoyable as the film appeared to be very pedantic by imposing a manipulative prowess upon a nonbeliever. The characters as a whole were bland and stock milled. The girl to sympathize, the cynic to overcome himself, etc.

I liked the Passion of the Christ (and Mel Gibson), though I do doze off during Jesus' pontificating, and don't think the plot particularly makes sense, but the characters are involving and the performances great. I try it like mythology, and can be objective from that point on, similar to how a Christian could regard "Finding Siddharta" or the eastern influence in "The Fountain," but "Henry Poole" just didn't involve much and loses value in translation to those who do not share the bias.

For example, "Into The Wild"'s conclusion shows the clouds parting to suggest God's love reigning upon McCandless. Sean Penn, the director, isn't religious and McCandless himself was a loose deist/Christian, but even I as a non-believer could accept that the motif inferred that McCandless had died at peace with things, be it his parents or his painful ailment. I felt it inclusive and not specifically theologically bearing.