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- 2017
- PG-13
- Focus Features
- 1 h 45 m
- 2017
- PG-13
- Focus Features
- 1 h 45 m
Summary Sometimes things are not always what they seem, especially in the small suburban town where the Carpenter family lives. Single suburban mother Susan Carpenter (Naomi Watts) works as a waitress at a diner, alongside feisty family friend Sheila (Sarah Silverman). Her younger son Peter (Jacob Tremblay) is a playful 8-year-old. Taking care o...
Directed By: Colin Trevorrow
Written By: Gregg Hurwitz
- 2017
- PG-13
- Focus Features
- 1 h 45 m
- 2017
- PG-13
- Focus Features
- 1 h 45 m
The Book of Henry
31
4.7
Where to Watch
Summary Sometimes things are not always what they seem, especially in the small suburban town where the Carpenter family lives. Single suburban mother Susan Carpenter (Naomi Watts) works as a waitress at a diner, alongside feisty family friend Sheila (Sarah Silverman). Her younger son Peter (Jacob Tremblay) is a playful 8-year-old. Taking care o...
Directed By: Colin Trevorrow
Written By: Gregg Hurwitz
Where to Watch
Top Cast
Metascore
Generally Unfavorable
Based on 31 Critic Reviews
31
6% Positive
2 Reviews
2 Reviews
48% Mixed
15 Reviews
15 Reviews
45% Negative
14 Reviews
14 Reviews
Metascore
Generally Unfavorable
Based on 31 Critic Reviews
31
6% Positive
2 Reviews
2 Reviews
48% Mixed
15 Reviews
15 Reviews
45% Negative
14 Reviews
14 Reviews
The Book of Henry is a wildly imaginative film with a lot of shifting parts, and an absolutely huge heart. A film this original deserves to be seen and felt.
This story soon turns excessively maudlin.
User Score
Mixed or Average
Based on 66 User Ratings
4.7
36% Positive
24 Ratings
24 Ratings
23% Mixed
15 Ratings
15 Ratings
41% Negative
27 Ratings
27 Ratings
User Score
Mixed or Average
Based on 66 User Ratings
4.7
36% Positive
24 Ratings
24 Ratings
23% Mixed
15 Ratings
15 Ratings
41% Negative
27 Ratings
27 Ratings
This is one of the best movies I have ever seen.
I will NOT discuss how this story unfolds.
Our main protagonist, Henry, is an 11 year old genius. He is almost too smart to be believed but, being rather smart myself, I have spent lots of time around smart people, even when I was growing up, and I can tell you from first hand experience that there are kids like Henry out there. Sadly they are rare.
Our second protagonist, Henry's mother, cares deeply about her two sons. She is a single mother, and that's relevant to the plot. We are never told how she came to be a single mother, but that is unimportant.
Being such a good mother she has imbued Henry and his younger brother with a sense of decency and responsibility, and Henry uses his genius in his own unique ways. It's a delight to watch. When I was his age I did a number of the same things, but clearly he is way beyond where I was at 11 years old.
The story takes off when we find out that Henry has figured out, correctly, that the girl next door, a classmate of his, is being abused by her step father, and Henry sets out to stop it.
Henry is driven by a powerful sense of injustice about what is happening to the girl, something I understand well. I know this because I was a severely abused child myself. My own mother was "less than ideal", but there were other adults in my childhood who were there for me so my life has turned out well in spite of my mother.
But because of my background I know the rage at betrayal which Henry feels, and I know his determination to set things right. As the story unfolds we see his determination to end the girl's abuse, and the story beautifully lays out for us the reasons why it goes in the direction it does.
This is an intelligent, carefully crafted, nearly flawless story. I urge you to go see it. For me it is one of the best movies ever.
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The story absolutely touched my heart and I loved it. I don't really get why it got such negative critique as it was amazing in my opinion. I am thankful for those people who didn't really like it but still took the positive side of it into consideration before rating. I guess it does depend on a person's personality and their perspective. Through my perspective i absolutely loved the movie. The concept and feels and the emotional content left me with tears at parts. There were some issues but most movies also do. Overall this movie really focused on the emotion and concept through the story. The transaction could have been better but overall I honestly don't understand why its getting so much hate. I hope people focus on the emotional content more and don't rate it straight zero and try to actually take in the positive aspects!
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The entire thing feels forced and hollow, less an authentic expression of the human experience and more a gee-whiz exercise in cleverness, slathered in a healthy coat of multiplex-friendly weirdness.
The really sad thing is that this is a movie with some intriguing characters that has some real comic and dramatic potential, but all this gets lost in increasingly silly plot mechanics.
It aims for the kind of sprawl that could contain a film with so many big ideas about death and grief and cruelty and salvation, but it’s somehow at once too modest for how bizarre it eventually gets and too excessive to meaningfully deliver on those emotions.
The Book of Henry means well, but it doesn’t do well. It does incoherent pastiche and self-congratulatory pap instead.
The Book of Henry is the most misguided film since the 2003 Gary Oldman abomination "Tiptoes." Trevorrow is slated to helm an upcoming Star Wars film, so y’all have fun with that.
[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]
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I needed to see the film that left Colin Trevorrow jobless in Star Wars, no doubt the simplicity of this film affected him and is not like he also did something memorable in Jurassic World.
A very poor script that neither the cast can rescue, certainly it's very boring and very unsatisfying.
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This film started with a rating of 7, but as the plot progressed, it dwindled down to the current 4. The story starts with promise: Naomi Watts plays a single mom to 2 boys, one of whom has a precocious intellect. The 2 young actors make the movie: Jaeden Lieberher ("St. Vincent") and Jacob Tremblay ("Room") both turn in impressively deep and touching performances. Once the family's warm, spunky relationship is established, the unpleasant activities next door cast gloom over their happiness. After an unfortunate twist, the plot deteriorates into an implausible scheme with gaping gaps in the logic. Ultimately, what started as a compelling drama fails with a wimpy ending.
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I like fiction, I like science fiction, magical realism and fantasy movies. But fake realism could be the worst thing to happen to a movie. And this one outshines and excels in that.
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Wow, I'm speechless.
This is the dumbest **** I've ever seen. Pretty insulting this tries to be unpredictable and original, but backfiring so badly it takes talent falling this low. Never seen anything like it and not in a positive light.
I ****!
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Production Company
Double Nickel Entertainment,
Sidney Kimmel Entertainment
Release Date Jun 16, 2017
Duration 1 h 45 m
Rating PG-13
Tagline Never leave things undone.
Awards
Golden Camera, Germany
• 1 Win & 1 Nomination
Golden Trailer Awards
• 1 Nomination
SXSW Film Festival
• 1 Nomination
