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.
