Jesus Henry Christ

The film has its bad points which are expressed in other reviews, In this one I will only be dealing with the howevers... Whilst the storyline consists of the undeveloped stories of each of the main characters and ends a little too neatly there are moments within the film which make it worth watching, largely due to the almost characteur like portrayal of the main characters. Whilst the characters are seen by many critics as shallow there are a lot of characters in it to enjoy. Unfortunately what made the film enjoyable for me personally was the mingling of the eccentricities of each characters, I say unfortunately as this seems to be where it falters in many peoples eyes: Whilst interesting the characters may be, the running time of the film does not allow for the full realization of the characters. I did not mind this so much as I have personally found in wes anderson films (tho i still love them) that sometimes the building of the characters have slowed the film down to what is usually a melancholy pace. JHC is seen as a poor version of a wes anderson film but as a wes anderson fan I found the eccentricities of the characters enjoyable all the same, despite the troubles in fully realising them in the plot. If there had been another half an hour added and the films dead ends reworked into satisfying conclusions this film could have easily been an 8+ /10

"The truth is, Henry, you are a miracle of modern medicine." After ten year old Henry (Spevack) is suspended from kindergarten he has a talk with his grandfather. When he is told that his grandfather has located his half-sister Henry finally thinks he has a chance to find his father. This movie started off very funny and almost held it the whole way. The humor is pretty dark at times and you laugh at things you don't feel like you should. The kid that plays Henry is very good in this and so is the girl that plays his sister. I really like these kind of movies about dysfunctional families for some reason. Michael Sheen's character is especially funny and I hope he plays more roles like this. There isn't really anything new or amazing to this one but it is very entertaining and funny almost the whole way through. I recommend this. Overall, not really anything original but the actors make this very much worth seeing. I liked it. I give it a B+.

"Jesus Henry Christ" is a quirky indie comedy with a genetics, homosexuality and heresy bent. It starts off with heavy '70s-influenced comedy which you just have to hustle through to get to the heart of the story. The plot might seem a bit eccentric, but that is probably necessary if the comedy is going to be actually funny. Henry is a genius test-tube baby. He might be a freak but his mother (Toni Collette) wants to raise him normally.

Obviously Henry doesn't have many friends; that's why he's the classic indie protagonist. It also doesn't help that Catholic school headmasters don't like it when he denounces God's existence. Henry has always been able to handle himself just fine until the question of who his father is keeps popping up.

The introductions of his probable half-sister (Samantha Weinstein) and father (Michael Sheen) are possibly the funniest and most brilliant character set-up scenes. Audrey is Dr. Slavkin O'Hara's natural daughter but has decided to raise her as a psychology experiment in a world free of gender bias. Needless to say, she wishes she didn't have a father. Weinstein was uniquely beautiful and sympathetically hilarious as an adolescent with the hardest life imaginable. Sheen was funny, original and amazingly empathetic as a father/professor that is a perfect mix of 30 Rock's Wesley Snipes and the pedantic one from Midnight in Paris.

The spinning camera choices get annoying, the character and situation oddities can be off-putting, but it's also damn hilarious especially if you like anything that tries to turn "normal" social and cultural values upside down. "Jesus Henry Christ" is clever, particularly well-acted by most of the cast, and so original that you stare in disbelief but then laugh-out-loud out of awkwardness, relatability and genuine appreciation.

I picked this movie due to an expiring groupon, and the movie theatre had a poor selection of films. i came into this with no expectations, in fact, low expectations, due to the 5.8 rating on IMDb.

but i was quite blown away by this comedy, right from the very start. 10 seconds into it, i knew i was going to enjoy this film and i truly did.

it's a snappy film that moves fast. exaggerated but funny and with good reasoning. also has a nice heartwarming side to it too. it has a unique, and rather strange storyline. but this is a movie where execution trumps idea. the characters were quirky and multi-faceted. child actors were great too.

i do wish we got to see how the little guy turned out! i am really glad i got to watch this movie. i think it ranks one of my top favourite comedies! and i'm still baffled at its poor ratings! to be fair, comedies are usually not highly rated. PLUS i am a big fan of indie comedies. i really enjoyed 500 days of summer, thank you for smoking, etc. although i really though juno was overrated. i think this was funnier and better than juno!

I was in the library one afternoon, browsing through the DVD titles looking for something to jump out at me. Jesus Henry Christ, caught my eye because of its two leads, Michael Sheen and Toni Collette. I love their work and was surprised to see a film starring both of them, that I hadn't heard of.

Toni Collette is the single mother of Henry - a product of sperm donor father. Being a child genius, Henry knows all he needs to. Everything except the most important thing, "Who is his father?"

Several leaps of faith later and Henry is lead to Michael Sheen, who may or may not be the sperm donor. And 'hilarity' ensues. OK, I guess I may not have been very charitable there, but the film is not a great one. At the films core is an interesting idea and as I have titled my review "It's heart is in the right place". But I feel the film doesn't really know where it's going or what it wanted to be. It switches from moments of farce, black comedy and drama. It also shoots off at tangents, leaving several threads hanging.

Sheen and Collette do the best they can with the material at hand. But I couldn't help wondering how or indeed why either, but especially Sheen had ended up in this film.

The film describes itself as being "quirky". I am suspicious of anything that describes itself as quirky. Surely that is for the viewer to decide?

That said, the film is enjoyable in the most part, and it did make me laugh a couple of times. Perhaps best watched on a wet Saturday afternoon, if there is nothing better to do.

I have given it a 6/10 score - mainly due to Collette and Sheen. With lesser actors the score would have been less.