The Student News Site of Malvern Preparatory School

Friar's Lantern

The Student News Site of Malvern Preparatory School

Friar's Lantern

The Student News Site of Malvern Preparatory School

Friar's Lantern

    Film Failures: The Book of Henry

    Though “The Book of Henry” is an awful movie, it fails in the funniest ways possible.

    I watched a lot of movies this summer. I made a point out of seeing as many movies to come to the theater as I could. Even so, the most fun experience I had was watching “The Book of Henry” in theaters.

    So, going into this movie I had absolutely no expectations for it. I went into the movie just expecting it to be boring and unfunny. Little did I realize that I would be laughing almost nonstop for the next hour.

    The movie starts off with a boring intro of drawings in Henry’s book, I remember this sequence lasting way longer than it had to. Then, the actual live action movie begins. Watching this movie, there is something very clear from scene one, the acting is atrocious.

    I remember watching the first scene and laughing out loud because the lines were delivered so poorly. We are introduced to our heroes.

    Henry is an extremely bright young child who runs the house and does most of the hard work a mother usually does. Peter is Henry’s younger more naive and lovable brother. And finally, Henry’s mom Susan. She is an awful parent who plays video games and rad ukulele.

    The movie tries to make Henry and his mother’s relationship normal, but it just comes off very cruel. We see Henry do the taxes while his mom plays some Xbox game the creators got paid to advertise. They try to make it seem cute, but all I see is a mother neglecting her kids.

    Henry’s school life does not seem any easier, he constantly has to save his younger brother from getting bullied. Because of this and his brilliance, Henry does not have many friends. His only real friend is his neighbor Christina.

    Christina is a young girl who lives next to Henry and gets abused by her ex-police dad. Henry is the only person who knows this disturbing fact about her life.

    Henry tries to alert the school but they are like, “No, it doesn’t matter that her mood has darkened and she has evidence of being abused, we need more evidence.” So Henry is like, “Ok, I’ll just forget that you asked for more evidence and do this by myself.”

    Henry tries multiple times to get Christina’s dad caught, but it just fails miserably. Every time police are sent to his neighbor’s house, they get distracted by the fact that Christina’s dad is a ex-cop and don’t harshly interrogate him.

    So, after this, Henry decides something even more serious and psychotic has to be done. Nothing can satisfy 12-year-old Henry now, except for the blood of his enemy. Henry straight up creates a plan to kill his neighbor.

    But then, disaster strikes. Henry has cancer or something and dies. This would be really sad in a good movie, but the acting really ruins these scenes. Henry is seen crying and saying he is going into the light. This scene in particular felt like an elementary school play.

    So, with Henry dead, his mom has to actually be a parent. This makes her sad because being a parent ends up being a lot more difficult than jamming out on the ukulele. She also discovers Henry’s plans to kill the neighbor and decides to finish what he started.

    So, Henry’s plan is underway. The plan involves stealing a sniper rifle, to tricking Christina’s dad to give up ownership of his own child. Each step is more ridiculous than the last.

    Then, the most epic scene in the entire movie. Henry’s mom tries to murder her neighbor while Christina is at a talent show. Different talents are inter cut between Henry’s mom trying to murder someone.

    So, Henry’s mom will be loading her sniper and then it will cut to an eight year old spitting straight bars at his talent show. It’s honestly hilarious.

    In the end, Henry’s mom realizes that murder might not actually be the answer, and through a few wacky shenanigans, the police decide that maybe the dad is abusing his daughter. Hearing this news, Christina’s dad promptly kills himself. Now Christina is Henry’s awful mom’s child, yay?

    In the end, “The Book of Henry” is garbage. I thought it was hilarious but I doubt anyone else will. Don’t watch it, you will just be bored and disgusted.

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