Firstly, I watched Henry Poole is Here when the DVD first came out early in 2009. I liked the film but, I suppose, not enough to bother reviewing. Recently I had the inclination to watch it again and I thought much more highly of it - enough to want to see it on Blu-ray. When the 1080P disc arrived I watched it three more times (one for the film and then the 2 commentaries). I have really grown to become a big fan. This is a much better film than many critics give it credit for. Roger Ebert was insightful enough to give it 3.5/4 but most others are rather indifferent. So, right away I'd like to endorse the film - it is quite detailed and very well made as well as being a conceptually wonderful story. 

There is quite a discrepancy between the two image transfers as the DVD shares the disc with the pan-and-scan 1.33 version so the video bitrate is appallingly low (about 1/6 that of the Blu-ray) and the visual quality suffers with less detail, more artifacts and poorer rendering of colors. Standing alone the Blu-ray is quite good - with the feature taking up over 25 Gig on the dual-layered disc. Colors are bright and true and close-ups show marvelous detail. The transfer supports solid contrast and the image is reasonably tight - especially as compared to the less effectual DVD. This Blu-ray looks very impressive for a film that might be lumped into the category of not supporting such attentive visual quality. I was surprised at how strong it appears.

Audio obviously leans to the Dolby TrueHD 5.1 at 2972 kbps. Aside from the film's, sometimes heavy-handed, music - "On An Ocean", "Song 2", "Promises" and Dylan's "Not Dark Yet" the track doesn't come into play with any notable successes. It's essentially dialogue-driven with optional subtitles on both editions and my Momitsu tells me this disc is Region 'A'-locked.

The Blu-ray has more supplements - with a second commentary - quite technical, on production, especially cinematography - with director Mark Pellington and DOP Eric Schmidt. It's quite good for those keen on learning about those particular facets of filmmaking. Also the Blu-ray has a pile of deleted scenes not available on the DVD. They run with an optional commentary and last over 1/2 an hour.  Both editions share the Pellington and writer Albert Torres commentary which is fairly light but brings up some salient points of interest about the story - it's original form and how it was changed for the film (and why). Both also have the standard 15-minute Making of...  with a trailer and music videos.

Solid film and solid Blu-ray that advances well beyond the $2 more it is asking, over the DVD, with a vastly superior image, audio and further, relevant extra features. The film was a very pleasant surprise upon re-visitation and the 1080P presentation offers the much better package. Absolutely recommended!       

Gary W. Tooze