Jesus Henry Christ (2012)

Directed by: Dennis Lee | 91 minutes | comedy | Actors: Toni Collette, Michael Sheen, Jason Spevack, Samantha Weinstein, Frank Moore, Aaron Abrams, Melyssa Ade, Dewshane Williams, Paul Braunstein, Hannah Brigden, Luca Castricone, Mark Caven, Roger Clown, Devan Cohen, Drew Davis, Keith Dinicol, Kevin HareKate HewlettJack JessopJamie JohnstonCameron KennedyMark MacDonaldMickey MacDonald

Indie classic-in-the-making ‘Jesus Henry Christ’ has not yet delivered the fame that writer/director Dennis Lee should have envisioned after the still affably released ‘Fireflies in the Garden’ (based on a poem by Robert Frost). His short feature film of the same name – on which the feature film is based – attracted so much interest from the film world that he had the opportunity to make a remake with more money and more time. Not completely successful, but also not the monstrosity that the film is sometimes accused of being, ‘Jesus Henry Christ’ is above all a small and fine film, which, thanks to the special story and protagonists Toni Collette and Michael Sheen, manages to rise above the average .

The film is about ten-year-old Henry James Hermin, who has managed to develop an extraordinarily high IQ under the strict supervision of his feminist mother, but is dissatisfied with not knowing who his biological father is. Henry’s family then appears in a series of delightfully bizarre characters, with strange lifestyles to match.

As a subcutaneous emotion behind the search for his real father, there is mainly the duality between being satisfied and dissatisfied; happy and/or unhappy. That is where the true power of the film lies. As a drama about a boy looking for his father, ‘Jesus Henry Christ’ is indeed subpar (the answer is too obvious for that and his father is found too quickly), but in the more subtle layers the film is strong. Henry has an absurdly high IQ, but what does this bring him besides knowledge of everything he’s ever seen and read? The way screenwriter and director Dennis Lee has incorporated the search for happiness into the film speaks for his strength as a storyteller, and the way this is worked out in the film speaks for his vision as a director: small stories make great films. And that is exactly what ‘Jesus Henry Christ’ is.