"The Book of Henry" gets an extra half smile because of the engaging cast, all doing their best to make sense. Otherwise, it's really, really hard to suspend disbelief and go with the plot. [There are going to be spoilers, so if you're planning on seeing this movie, skip the rest of this.] This is the only feel-good family comedy where a mother (Naomi Watts) lets her older son, Henry (Jaeden Lieberher - playing a genius), control her life. He does her finances and makes sure she goes to bed at night instead of playing video games. There don't seem to be any consequences to this arrangement, which means that when Susan realizes that her son is just a child and she doesn't have to do what he says, it feels like it comes from left field. While Henry is played with engaging charm by Jaeden Lieberher, he doesn't seem like a real person. He has over $600.000 in a checking account from playing the stock market, everyone likes him and he's a genius inventor. You wait to see how his inventions fit together to influence the story and director Colin Trevorrow shoots the various parts of the contraptions as though they have a significant part to play later on.
The subplot that gradually takes over is Henry's obsession with proving the girl next door, Christina (Maddie Ziegler), is being abused by her stepfather, Glenn (Dean Norris). The film doesn't bother to show us Henry building his case other than Henry looking out his window and seeing Glen enter Christina's room late at night. We don't know either, but we're supposed to infer that Henry is right. And Henry dies midway through the movie. What?!! Why? But don't worry. He's left his mom detailed instructions for how to kill Glenn. That's right. Kill him. This is a feel-good family comedy, huh? And when the end arrives, there's another, What?!! Why? In "The Book of Henry," everyone involved want to do something meaningful, but it doesn't make sense.
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