In caricature the independent film director is an underfed auteur, churning out work rife with cynicism and disaffection. Which makes Mark Pellington (left) a contradiction. “He looks like a linebacker,” the actor Luke Wilson said. “But he’s got the heart and soul of a painter.”  That heart was broken in 2004 when Mr. Pellington’s wife, Jennifer Barrett-Pellington, died abruptly of complications from a ruptured colon, leaving behind her husband and their 2 ½-year-old daughter; it was, Mr. Pellington said, “the unthinkable.”

 

He resurfaces four years after the tragedy with a film that touches on spiritual themes - Henry Poole is Here.