Henry Poole is sad. We know he's sad because he's played by Luke Wilson with a hangdog expression, a scruffy, mournful beard and a world-weary mumble. It won't take most moviegoers long to figure out that Henry is sad because he's gotten some bad news from a doctor, but "Henry Poole Is Here" withholds this information as if its revelation will come as a shock.

Henry has moved back to the neighborhood in which he grew up. He'd hoped to buy his childhood home, but it wasn't for sale, so instead he's settled for a nearby dump. He has little interest in his neighbors -- attractive single mom Dawn (Radha Mitchell) and her young daughter Millie on one side, and nosy Esperanza (Adriana Barraza) on the other.

Everything changes when Esperanza discovers what she thinks is the face of Christ in a water stain on Henry's outside wall. Much to his dismay, Henry is soon dealing with a parade of miracle-seekers through his backyard -- and to his further dismay, the stain seems to be working. A grocery clerk's eyesight is healed, an elderly woman's rheumatism clears up, and little Millie next door, who hasn't said a word since her daddy left her, begins to speak.

It's hard to know quite what to make of Henry Poole. Director Mark Pellington ("The Mothman Prophecies") deserves some credit for establishing a palpable sense of melancholy in the early going. The run-down suburban neighborhood, underpopulated and going to seed, could have been an evocative setting for a much better movie.

But Pellington shares the blame with first-time screenwriter Albert Torres for an uncertain tone of downbeat whimsy. How seriously the filmmakers take the miracle of the stucco wall is up for debate, but the movie's ultimate revelations feel unearned.