Book of Henry (2017)
Precocious genius Henry are being raised by their self-absorbed Mom (Susan), when Henry creates of his own justice.
~ Aristotle Sabouni
Created: 2017-06-18 |
Being that I was a genius kid (who held myself back in school because I too felt that socialization with kids my own age was more important that "academic accomplishments" as measured by a system that I felt wasn't very fair or wise), and I also had a somewhat self-absorbed Mom, was on the receiving side of abuse (and so had an over-developed sense of justice): thus I could relate to the teasers on this movie. While is was getting only 25% approval from reviewers, it was getting 71% by audiences (and I tend to associate more with audiences than reviewers): so I went to see it. It was interesting. I liked it more than most will, but that still puts it as barely better than half the movies I'll see this year. And that, only because it was at least somewhat original, despite how hackneyed everything felt.
The teasers play it more as a caper heist, or high drama and some such -- but everything felt pieced together from many other stories. And I was into it to see how they played Henry --and his character was too ham-handed. They didn't have the time to play out the nuances they should have -- that genius kids aren't geniuses in everything, that they can be off the hook smarter than their contemporaries, while still being childish and total fuckups in other areas of their life. So while it was reasonably acted (I thought all the characters played their parts well -- even Sarah Silverman, who normally has the same appeal to me as licking a dirty chalkboard), I felt like the story line had a lot of potential (in the big picture), but something about the dialog and actions just fell a little flat.
Film Critics[edit source]
If you want to see leftist bias in media, you just have to look at all the examples of how far off from their reviewers are from their viewers. I use the spread as a predictor of whether I'll like a film. Big spread with audience over critics? I'm going to like it. But big spread with critics over audience? I'll usually side with audience.
| Tatometer | Summary |
|---|---|
 |
Book of Henry (2017) - It got only 25% approval from reviewers, it got 71% by audiences (and I tend to associate more with audiences than reviewers). It eventally settled to 22/63. It was good enough, but not great. I think the leftist reviewers hated it, because it was a simplistic caricature of progressives (good) versus conservatives (evil), and it didn't play everyone as victims, but humans were able to adapt to any situation in absurd ways. |
In the end, I liked the movie more than most reviewers, and flipped almost completely on why. While I agree that the tone didn't quite work, when you realize the movie isn't about Henry but Susan (his Mom played by Naomi Watts) and Henry's brother (Peter), it becomes a much better film, and I was quite happy with the ending. Though it was a bit all over the place -- and it definitely went places you didn't expect while still managing to be too cliché at the same time. To me, it came off as a somewhat darker film, with reasonable messages, and good to mediocre overall -- with hints that it could have been a much better film, even if I can't figure out the recipe for making it that myself. And I know that most other people would find it far less appealing than I did.
🔗 More
| |
| |
