This movie was by no means destined to be a masterwork, but coming from Colin Trevorrow who dawned the indie drama 'Safety Not Guaranteed' and the summer blockbuster 'Jurassic World', this film should have been at least competent. The Book of Henry, unfortunately, is anything but competent. Exercising through absurd tonal shifts and abrupt changes in styles, this movie has absolutely no clue of what kind of movie it is trying to be. Is it a comedy? Is it a drama? Is it a thriller? Based on the two-decades-shelved screenplay by Gregg Hurwitz, it appears as if the film is trying to balance all of these genres at one time, but fails miserably and transpires into a hot mess. And that is not even including how overtly contrived it gets. Balancing a suspense thriller with raw emotions and family dynamics is a wildly tricky task to pull off. But one thing is for sure, it is better than make something simplistic and succeed than attempt something ambitious and fail horribly. This film follows Henry Carpenter (played by Jaeden Lieberher), an unusually gifted 11-year old boy with an IQ of a grown adult who spends his time organizing papers and paying the bills, while his mother (played by Naomi Watts) is the child at heart who sits on the couch playing video games and drinking with her friend Sheila (played by Sarah Silverman). What her job? Working as a waitress at a local restaurant. Standing by his side is his little brother Peter (played by Jacob Tremblay) who he fights to protect against bullies at school. One day, the family is greeted by a young girl named Christina (played by Maddie Ziegler) and her stepfather Glenn who move in next door. Upon discovering Glenn abusing her, Henry formulates a plan to kill him.
Yep, that's right! The title character believes that assassinating the man in next door is a more wholesome plan than rather capturing evidence of his abusive behavior and showing to the police. Nonetheless, this is just the very beginning of what is wrong with this picture. This movie showcases an eccentric blend of suspense, domestic abuse, and coming to terms with a family tragedy; and seems to have no idea on how to balance these without throwing logic out the window. Tonally all over the place and contrived in exhibiting emotional resonance, the story opens us as a kind-hearted family- type drama as it explores the lives of the title character and his family before shifting into a gloomy tear-jerker when a character is diagnosed with a serious illness. The final third is when the plot finally gains real momentum as the family decides to execute their plan, and that is when the story attempts the absurd task of suddenly establishing itself as a suspenseful spy thriller, but eventually goes off the rails in terms of plausibility that it fails to provide a good suspension of disbelief. Seriously, does this mother actually approve of following her son's plan on going to dangerous lengths to take care of a man who happens to be abusing her daughter? Performance wise, the cast is fine and the relationship between Henry and Peter is both cute and heartwarming, these aspects are just a little strands of gold buried underneath the ineptitude of the film's script.
The Book of Henry is an overtly contrived picture that tries way too hard to be ambitious it quickly loses track of how horribly misguided it is. The film holds the capacity of leaving viewers wiping away tears which would be far more acceptable if it wasn't so ham-fisted. Sadly, that is not the case here. There's no doubt this will reach the appeal of soft-hearted moviegoers, but for everyone else, this is almost destined to leave them scratching their heads.
Yep, that's right! The title character believes that assassinating the man in next door is a more wholesome plan than rather capturing evidence of his abusive behavior and showing to the police. Nonetheless, this is just the very beginning of what is wrong with this picture. This movie showcases an eccentric blend of suspense, domestic abuse, and coming to terms with a family tragedy; and seems to have no idea on how to balance these without throwing logic out the window. Tonally all over the place and contrived in exhibiting emotional resonance, the story opens us as a kind-hearted family- type drama as it explores the lives of the title character and his family before shifting into a gloomy tear-jerker when a character is diagnosed with a serious illness. The final third is when the plot finally gains real momentum as the family decides to execute their plan, and that is when the story attempts the absurd task of suddenly establishing itself as a suspenseful spy thriller, but eventually goes off the rails in terms of plausibility that it fails to provide a good suspension of disbelief. Seriously, does this mother actually approve of following her son's plan on going to dangerous lengths to take care of a man who happens to be abusing her daughter? Performance wise, the cast is fine and the relationship between Henry and Peter is both cute and heartwarming, these aspects are just a little strands of gold buried underneath the ineptitude of the film's script.
The Book of Henry is an overtly contrived picture that tries way too hard to be ambitious it quickly loses track of how horribly misguided it is. The film holds the capacity of leaving viewers wiping away tears which would be far more acceptable if it wasn't so ham-fisted. Sadly, that is not the case here. There's no doubt this will reach the appeal of soft-hearted moviegoers, but for everyone else, this is almost destined to leave them scratching their heads.