The Book Of Henry - movie review

The Book Of Henry

Plot: With instructions from her genius son's carefully crafted notebook, a single mother sets out to rescue a young girl from the hands of her abusive stepfather.
Cast: Naomi Watts, Jaeden Lieberher, Jacob Tremblay
Director: Colin Trevorrow
Certificate: 12A (emotionally upsetting scenes, child abuse references, strong language)
Runtime: 1hr 45 mins
Release Date: Friday 23rd June 2017

In an age of cinema where all the rage seems to be building a grand and expansive connective universe, rehashing and remaking old movies/TV shows or making endless sequels until the phrase "flogging a dead horse" becomes an understatement, it's become a rarity for studios to take risks and allow directors to make something wholly original. Recently, the tides have begun to change, especially with Edgar Wright and his masterpiece of Baby Driver, and Jurassic World helmer, Colin Trevorrow has now taken his turn. Unfortunately, with The Book Of Henry, this proves that originality doesn't always mean good quality.

When someone tells me they don't like La La Land...

Going into The Book Of Henry, I can't say I was exactly anticipating it. Before the embargo was lifted the only reasons I could think of wanting to see The Book Of Henry was due to an intriguing looking trailer and the fact that Trevorrow's very next film would be a small little motion picture that I'm sure none of you have heard of; Star Wars Episode IX. He had impressed me with Jurassic World, not because it was anything boundary pushing but it was a brilliant example of a top summer blockbuster, and has a solid track record leading up to this. Obviously wanting to make a much smaller film before another studio hands Trevorrow a quarter of a billion dollars, there's no denying that he is a very capable director. Sadly, it's the script and wild genre clashes that become this film's Kryptonite. It was when the reviews came flooding in labelling The Book Of Henry as 'The Worst Film of the Year' and claiming it plays some incredibly dark and sensitive themes for whimsy meant that I had to see it in order for this all to be believed. Now that I have seen it I can say that The Book Of Henry is definitely not the worst film of the year. In fact, for the opening half an hour or so, I was actually getting into it. The film opens and introduces us to the Carpenter family. Our main hero is Henry (Jaeden Lieberher) who is a child genius who, in order to feel normal, attends a regular elementary school along with his younger brother, Peter (Jacob Tremblay). As well as outsmarting his fellow classmates, Henry also has a wild imagination, creating fantastic contraptions and designs for inventions. He's​ so smart that he even plays the stock market remarkably well resulting in his family being well-to-do. Lieberher gives a very commanding and powerful performance for a character whose mind is far above his years. Paired with the shining star that is Tremblay, these two make for an endearing duo with their adorable brotherly love. Unsurprisingly, Tremblay is once again one of the best actors in the film he stars in but thankfully, Trevorrow doesn't try to make a Henry 2.0 with Peter and allows Tremblay to perform as a kid, no strings attached. The weak link in the Carpenter family is Naomi Watts who plays Henry and Peter's mother, Susan. Apart from potentially being the laziest and childish mother on Planet Earth (seriously, she spends her free time playing Gears Of War rather than focusing on her taxes), I never connected to Watts as Susan. Her performance felt very distant, as if she wasn't really giving it her all and in some scenes of serious dramatic weight, that disconnection was costly. I also have major problems with some developments that happen to her character in the film but more on that later. All in all, the opening act of this film seemed quite promising. It was light-hearted, endearing and possessed a kindred spirit to it all. There was a quiet sense of mystery and childlike imagination almost as if we were watching the world through Henry's eyes. Then it all changed. Then it all went wrong. Very, very wrong.

There was no way he was making it to the toilet.

FACT: The film was shot in 36 days.

For a film that opens with a warm heart and an almost grounded adventurous tone, there comes a moment when everything comes crashing down and the film then becomes a statement about grief and mourning. This would be fine if the film built us up to this point but instead, it blindsides us leaving the audience dazed and confused rather than feeling the appropriate emotions that the filmmakers intended. Gregg Hurwitz, the screenwriter, certainly has a pair of gigantic balls on him to make some of the decisions he did and unluckily for him, very little of them pay off. Apart from unexpected twists that seemed to be thrown in last minute for the sake of either shock value or it aiming for total originality, it was the way the film dealt with those subsequent revelations which added salt into the wound. Trying to avoid spoilers, there's a scene in which someone of intellectual authority is providing some bad news and instead of the film focusing on the shock and sadness of it all, Henry spends his time re-correcting that person if he were to make any mistakes and asking him to not "Bullshit him". Here's where some of those review statements begin to make sense. In what should be a very dramatic and heavy going scene that may have reduced a portion of the audience to tears, it is instead swapped out for a fairly whimsical look at how smart Henry still is. It just doesn't work. And unfortunately, it doesn't get better from there. Here is when The Book Of Henry begins to tragically suffer from disastrous genre clashes. In the space of half an hour, we, the audience, have gone from watching a seemingly feel-good family adventure to a depressing and tumultuous insight into mortality and once that concludes, then a mystery/thriller. Upon discovering that there may be some horrible acts going on at their neighbours, the film shifts into an elaborate cat and mouse thriller as Naomi Watts finally takes centre stage (even though the film clearly sets Henry up as the main character) and is tasked with dealing it. However, does she deal with it like any normal human would? What do you think? Instead of attempting to resolve the problem like any other human being, she resorts to the most extreme decision and we are expected to agree with it. I understand that, when the actions of Dean Norris towards Maddie Ziegler are revealed, we are meant to be disgusted but that is then overshadowed by the lack in logical thinking from Susan. The film then wraps up in a ridiculously rushed manner and brushes over the fact that certain characters were willing to make drastic and life-altering changes without a bat of an eyelid. The Book Of Henry is a true representation of a film that started on track and could have been a decent family film but as each big decision was made and each twist came about, the film gradually came off​ the rails until the point where it came crashing down hard.

He's sure to get all the ladies in that headgear.

I'm fairly certain that, deep down in amongst the contrasting genres and major tonal shifts, there is a good film but because of poor decisions that didn't seem fully thought out, The Book Of Henry descends into a pit that it can't escape from. Whilst I spent the opening half an hour sitting back and wondering what all the fuss was about, The Book Of Henry then morphed into an hour of shaking my head in utter disbelief.

My Verdict: 4/10

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