Jesus Henry Christ (2012)

Unfairly bashed by critics as self-consciously quirky and "hipster," "Jesus Henry Christ" is a entertainingly quirky little film, featuring highly intelligent characters who must find their own way towards being happy.

Henry James Herman (Jason Spevack) is an enigma, a brilliant youngster raised by his single mother Patricia (Toni Collette.) Henry has a keenly incisive mind and a photographic memory, but there is one thing he doesn't know... who his dad, an anonymous sperm donor, is.

Enter dweeby professor Slavkin O'Hara (Michael Sheen), whose latest mistake is putting his 12-year-old daughter Audrey (Samantha Weinstein)'s face on his new book, Made Gay or Born That Way? Audrey, as it turns out, is gay, but she's not ready to be outed just yet, and Slavkin's bug-up provokes the merciless taunts of her peers.



Henry decides to locate his father, which leads to a series of sometimes sweet, sometimes sad, sometime revelatory occurrences, which in the long run brings Henry's makeshift family together.

But first Henry must contend with his skeptical mother and furious half-sister, while Henry's appearance dredges up old memories in Slavkin, who must come face-to-face with how fractured he and his daughter's relationship has become.

This film is not a masterpiece. I didn't like parts of it. For instance, the white character who thinks he's black and refers to the other characters as "white Devils" was kind of silly. The scene where Henry is bullied for writing an atheistic paper in Catholic school was a little obvious (Will there ever be a movie where the kid is bullied for being Catholic? Probably not.)

The movie I'd compare "Jesus Henry Christ" to is "Amelie." The dark/cutesy whimsy and off-beat narration tie the two films together, but Jason Spevack's Henry is simply not as likable as Audrey Tautou's Amelie Poulain.

I mean, Jason Spevack is fine, but the real discovery here is Samantha Weinstein as Audrey, Slavkin's defiant adolescent daughter. It's hard to make a character of a preteen who hates everything and everyone not seem like an entitled brat, but Samantha Weinstein makes you sympathize with Audrey.

There is also a scene where Henry and Audrey go on a carnival ride, and Audrey's shrieks of fright become joyful screams, that I thought was beautifully done. "Jesus Henry Christ" is an unfairly bashed addition to the genre of offbeat indie movies.