The Book of Henry (2017)

You won't be disappointed!

Good concept, poorly executed.

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Having gone into this film per my girlfriend's request and without watching the trailer, I was positively delighted. I was prepared for another Gifted, or some sort of touching film about a boy growing up too fast because of his genius. The Book of Henry is not at all like I anticipated and has is full of surprises. This film made me genuinely sad, stressed, and excited. An unexpected treat!

I have a soft spot for films that bring emotion out of me. Sometimes I think I give films too much credit for doing this (basically if I cry then I deem it a good film). But at the end of the day isn't that what films set out to do, bring emotion out of their audience? Of course it doesn't always have to be sadness, but sadness is probably the easiest one to notice and remember. 'The Book of Henry' is a very sad film in multiple spots. It knows how to tug at your heart-strings and does so repeatedly. But there's more to it than that.The key to pulling off a movie like this is to sell the characters. The three main characters (the mother and her two sons) are all very strong characters. They are loveable and you are rooting for them right from the beginning. The other characters do suffer a little bit with a lack of screen time and little effort put into letting the audience get to know their side of the story. The film takes a solid 50 minutes really just setting up the characters and putting the predicament they will face into place. This is partly why the film is so strong, but it does also leave the second half of the film feeling a little rushed and ending quite abruptly.It also gets a little odd at one point towards the end with the road these characters appear to be choosing to go down. I kept thinking to myself that surely this isn't the way things are going to go down. It finds a nice way to dodge around this though and things play out in a more reasonable manner. I really enjoyed 'The Book of Henry' and while it certainly is not without its faults, I think it is definitely worth a watch. Bring the tissues though.

I went into The Book Of Henry expecting essentially a kids film, I guess by the title I figured this would be something akin to Diary of a Wimpy Kid (2010). I was wrong, I was really really wrong.The Book of Henry is a masterful clever title that isn't for kids and I wouldn't even say is suitable "Family" viewing. It tells the story of a single mum with her two children, she's essentially failing at life and the eldest of her two sons (Still a little boy) is the man of the house. He's a child genius and his mother depends on him to an overwhelming extent. He begins to fear his friend next door is being abused by her father so sets about a powerful intricate plan but things don't go to plan and the whole film goes in a direction I certainly did not forsee.A true tour de force The Book of Henry had me gripped with it's remarkable plot and strong performances, by the half way point I expected this to potentially be another 10 but sadly it fell short.Don't get me wrong The Book of Henry is a good film, it's clever, it's witty, it's unpredictable and it's heartfelt but somewhere along the way it falls short of greatness.It's tone is inconsistent and it would be very hard for me to narrow down a demographic, it's similiar to The Lovely Bones (2009) in it's dark overtones but oddly quaint imagery.Well made and certainly an original piece this perhaps should have been better but regardless is a sweet little film.The Good:UnpredictiblePowerful stuffThe Bad:Fails to truly deliver on its potentialNot sure Watts was the best casting choiceThings I Learnt From This Movie:Not every child actor makes me want to dive into the screen and slap them repeatedly. Most, but not all.Naomi Watts tends to pick movies that are simply too good for her

Full points for trying something different in an age where movie-making is arguably suffering from a copycat and unoriginal creative phase, but The Book of Henry is such an odd and tonally misplaced experience that this critically derided event is a film deserving of its dud tagline.Riding on a high after the indie darling Safety Not Guaranteed and then the box office behemoth Jurassic World, poor old director Colin Trevorrow lost a lot of his good will brownie points (and a gig directing the next episode of the Star Wars franchise) thanks to this utterly bonkers exercise.Whatever you think The Book of Henry is, it probably isn't, with this tale centred around Jaeden Lieberher's child genius Henry, Naomi Watt's as Henry's Gears of War obsessed mother Susan and Room star Jacob Tremblay as Henry's brother Peter never becoming the film you expect it to be and due to the nature of where Trevorrow's film heads too, it makes it hard to talk about this tale without completely ruining what for some may be an emotionally poignant journey.The films biggest problems outside of odd and misplaced tonal shifts and a misguided sense of emotion is that these characters Trevorrow brings to life alongside screenwriter Gregg Hurwitz are incredibly unlikeable, as well as being utterly unbelievable.There's nothing particularly wrong with what the actors in The Book of Henry bring to the table (although poor old Naomi Watts and Breaking Bad's Dean Norris must be regretting their time on board this film) and their all capable performers but there's no one here we grow to care about and everything's delivered in such a poor fashion that we can't help but not care.For a film that ends up chasing emotionally response and meaning from such things as child abuse, cancer and bullying, The Book of Henry remains constantly unengaging throughout, always at arm's length away from becoming the film it thought it might've become, Trevorrow's film feeling like a self-assured piece from the director and perhaps the welcome wake up call to the filmmaker who before this lambasted bomb was having a dream run in the Hollywood machine.Final say - A film that many of whom were involved with would likely erase from their filmography given the chance, Trevorrow has aimed high and fallen spectacularly short with the charmless and cold The Book of Henry. An uneasy mix of thriller, family drama and whimsical oddity that needs to be seen to be believed but sadly for all the wrong reasons.1 ½ a video game loving mum out of 5