Review of The Book of Henry (2017) by Brian S — 30 Oct 2017

All eyes will be on Colin Trevorrow's third feature film-2017s The Book of Henry-as this is his first step into the directing chair post-(billion dollar grossing) Jurassic World and pre-Star Wars Episode IX and should theoretically serve as a nice bar to measure the filmmaker.

With his humble beginnings with 2012s (very good) Safety Not Guaranteed, Trevorrow shot into the stratosphere with the success of 2015s Jurassic World-a success few would have predicted-and the director has gone back to his small-scale origins with The Book of Henry-an exercise in attempting to do too many things resulting in a very odd, if sincere, viewing experience.

With an original premise from screenwriter Gregg Hurwitz, the number one thing that the story has going for it is just that-originality-as there are not too many other films out there that dare to cover as much ground (and shift tone) as much as this one.

That said, knowing how to craft this originality and tonal shifts can leave one with a masterpiece, a bore or a fiasco and Trevorrow's film firmly lands in the latter. Even with a good cast (Naomi Watts gives a solid performance), a nice score from Michael Giacchino and fine cinematography from John Schwartzman-all of these surface level components can never truly rise above the weird, somewhat insane, decisions the plot veers into prompting the viewer to literally ask "Is this really happening?" It does have some dull moments but when the weird is at full momentum it is hard to look away, raising more questions about Trevorrow's directorial credentials but cementing 2017s The Book of Henry as a special kind of film-the fiasco that can go down in infamy as so bad it is good.