While the film geek community was aware that director Collin Trevorrow had a movie called The Book of Henry on the docket for release in 2017, the feature didn't gain all that much in the way of attention until it's bonkers first trailer was released, revealing the movies bonkers-looking plotline and immediately rocketing itself onto many people's radars. I'll freely admit to being one such person whose interest got piqued by the absolutely tonally all-over-the-map trailer which combined super-inventive kid movie tropes with Naomi Watts as a sniper action. The biggest question remaining for me and many others after watching that trailer was whether or not the actual movie itself would be this crazy....
The Book of Henry is all about the life of Susan Carpenter (Naomi Watts) and her two kids, Henry (Jaeden Lieberher) and Peter (Jacob Tremblay). Henry is a super smart kid, to the point that he's the one in charge of all of the taxes and financial dealings for the family, leaving Susan plenty of time to advance further and further into the video games she loves so much. Though life is far from perfect for the trio, they've got a loving mother, a good home and all seems mostly alright with the world...until Henry realizes that the girl next door, Christina (Maddie Ziegler), is being abused by her stepfather, local police commissioner Genn Sickleman (Dean Norris).
If you haven't been privy to the trailer for The Book of Henry, you may think, after reading that paragraph, you know where the stories going from here, right? This movie is gonna primarily concentrate on Henry trying to prove neighbor's guilt and maybe that detective quest will also help tie up some issues he has with his mom and brother, right? Nope. The Book of Henry has a loooot going on, way too much in fact. It's so overstuffed in terms of plotlines in fact that this seemingly world-altering plotline of a kid discovering his next door neighbor is being assaulted takes an extended backseat for an abruptly introduced plot element of Henry having a seizure that indicates he has a tumor on his brain.
Despite being a super genius kid, Henry's been having intense headaches repeatedly for four months and never once thought it could be the precursor to a greater medical emergency, I guess. The film then centers entirely around Henry struggling in the hospital and then eventually succumbing to his tumor and dying in his mother's arms. After that, the plotline about the abused neighbor eventually comes around when, during the grieving process for Susan and Peter, it's revealed Henry left his mother a red notebook and a tape full of all kinds of detailed instructions on how to procure a gun and proper training so that she can use a sniper rifle to kill Glenn Sickleman.
The Book of Henry basically transforms from a Zach Braff movie pastiche to a treacly Hallmark movie written by a maniac over the course of 104 minutes (that's with credits), which results in a bizarre creation whose audacity I kind of sort of admire conceptually, but the execution of such an all-over-the-place concept is severely lacking. Some directors, like Bong Joon-Ho, can handle juggling multiple tones in one movie, but unfortunately, neither writer Gregg Hurwitz nor director Collin Trevorrow seem to figure out how to merge the grounded quirky family elements that reign supreme in the first half of the movie with the heavy-duty revenge thriller elements in the second half of The Book of Henry.
Anytime the two elements manage to intersect (especially in a crucial climactic moment where Susan see's photos of her son throughout the son while she's aiming a sniper rifle at Glenn Sickleman), the results are at best unintentionally hilarious and at worst fall completely flat. Honestly, I'd say the problem here is simple; neither the intimate family stuff with Susan and her kids nor the darker thriller content are all that interesting on their and having each contrasting section of the movie juxtapose against the other only creates further problems instead of enhancing the individual tonal elements. Plus, there are all kinds of supporting characters with over-the-top character traits that feel extraneous, like an alcoholic pal of Susan (played by Sarah Silverman) or dodgeball loving school bully who drops some dope rhymes during a talent show.
Gregg Hurwitz's script is totally a scattershot mess, with the only segment of the movie that registers as being at all diverting being the first twnety minutes, where the mundane family shenanigans between Susan and her sons is at least sweet enough, especially since Naomi Watts actually does a great job lending authenticity to the role of the caring mother. Too bad there's no real depth or personality beyond "She loves video games" given to Susan while and Henry's younger brother Peter and especially next door neighbor, Christina, are total blank slates with no discernable personalities to their name. If only The Book of Henry (a movie so bland and forgettable even legendary composer Michael Giacchino can't seem to wring a good score out of it!) had spent more time making its characters at least interesting instead of just shoving too many bizarre dramatic plot elements into one movie, maybe this film could have been an actual page-turner instead of being a muddled and pointlessly strange tome.
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