Miles of Movies

                                                                                                         The Book of Henry is about Henry (Jaedan                                                                                                        Lieberher), a genius kid who basically takes care of                                                                                                  his immature single mother (Naomi Watts) and                                                                                                        younger brother (Jacob Tremblay). This family starts                                                                                                to suspect that something is going on next door                                                                                                        with their neighbor Christina (Maddie Ziegler), who                                                                                                  lives with her single father. But Henry has some                                                                                                        problems that complicate the story and make it                                                                                                        pretty crazy.

                                                                                                       This is a very interesting movie in that it takes                                                                                                  itself very seriously, but has a lot of ridiculous scenarios in it. If you buy into this movie’s tone and accept the premise, you’ll absolutely love it. If you don’t, you’ll probably laugh at how crazy this movie is. For me, I was actually really invested in the story for almost all of it. There were only a few moments where I had to step back and say “whoa, this is getting too over-the-top”. I guess it all comes down to the execution of the story, which almost had me.

           You see, this movie bounces around in tone quite a lot because, for one, it deals in some pretty serious subject material despite being presumably a kids movie. I understand the criticisms that this movie is sure to receive regarding its tonal shifts but I think that there is also quite a lot going on here that is praiseworthy. For one, I think the performance from Jaedan Lieberher is fantastic as Henry. He was great in Midnight Special and proves that he has quite a presence to him. Jacob Tremblay gives another fantastic performance, showing that he is one of the best child stars working today. He doesn’t have a big role, but really stood out to me. Naomi Watts is also quite good as their mother who is a little immature, drinking with her friend Shiela and playing video games at home. You really get the sense that Henry is the only adult in the family even though he is still really a kid, so when the story progresses, you understand where a lot of the difficulties come from.

            As I said, the movie is far from perfect. How much you like it will be directly influenced by how seriously you can take the movie, as it takes itself really seriously. The tone might be a problem in some parts, but the film still features fantastic performances and some unconventional twists that I liked. It’s original enough to be seen just on those merits, and I would recommend checking it out.