Critique Paper: The Book of Henry

Novee Claire B. Tejada

Angel Lee B. Tajantajan
Allia B. Ampi

Accountancy and Business Management (ABM)

St. Thomas Aquinas

Mr. Ryan James L. Navarro

October 17, 2023

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I. INTRODUCTION

 States the title, date it was released, author/s, actors, and its movie

background.

II. BODY

A. Summary

Single mother Susan Carpenter works as a waitress alongside her feisty family friend

Sheila. Taking care of everyone and everything in his own way is Susan's older son

Henry. Protective of his brother and a tireless supporter of his often-self-doubting

mother, Henry blazes through the days like a comet. When Susan discovers that the

family next door harbors a dark secret, she's surprised to learn that Henry has devised

a plan to help the young daughter.

B. Evaluation

Henry's plan to murder Glenn Sickleman, the abusive stepfather of his crush,

Christina Sickleman. Henry can't fulfill his mission because of his condition, so he

asks his mom after his death to accomplish his wishes through the help of the book

and the voice records. Yet his mom decided to stop the intention of killing Glenn

Sickleman. The services and cops knew the happenings in which Glenn sexually

abused her daughter, so they decided to arrest him. Unfortunately, Glenn killed

himself with a gun due to shame. After that, Susan adopted Christina as her own

along with his youngest son, Peter.

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 III. CONCLUSION

Henry (Jaeden Lieberher) is a boy genius looking after his irresponsible mother Susan

(Naomi Watts) and little brother Peter (Jacob Tremblay). While Susan spends her evenings

playing Gears of War and getting drunk with her co-worker Sheila (Sarah Silverman), Henry is

taking care of the finances, playing the stock market, and building Rube Goldberg machines.

He’s also trying to help his neighbor Christina (Maddie Ziegler), who’s being sexually abused

by her stepfather, the police commissioner Glenn Sickleman (Dean Norris). Henry tries to play

by the rules and report the crime, but no one will confront the powerful commissioner of a small,

peaceful town, so he takes it upon himself to rid the world of Glenn. However, due to unforeseen

circumstances, he must hand the task of murdering Glenn off to Susan. To explain it furthermore,

"The Book of Henry" tells us that we need to look out for one another. It is often said that

nobody knows what goes on behind other people's closed doors. Henry is an 11 years old boy

who is persistent and always looking out for others. He's protective of his little brother, the next-

door neighbor, and does so much to take care of his mom according to what I saw in the movie.

This film is horrible because of disgusting scenes and immaturity that are shown, but its plot

twist is pretty good that can pertain to satisfaction. Lastly, the movie can ironically evoke despair

and it can create a big impact on our society due to some realizations and real-life situations that

all of us can relate to.

The Book of Henry is a 2017 American drama thriller film directed by Colin Trevorrow

and written by Gregg Hurwitz. The film stars Naomi Watts, Jaeden Martell (then known as

Jaeden Lieberher), Jacob Tremblay, Sarah Silverman, Lee Pace, Maddie Ziegler, and Dean

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Norris. The story concerns a plan hatched by a young genius, dying of cancer, to save the girl

next door from abuse.

The film premiered at the Los Angeles Film Festival on June 14, 2017. It was released in

theaters by Focus Features on June 16, 2017, was unsuccessful at the box office, and received

generally negative reviews from critics, who cited the screenplay's jarring plot twists and tonal

shifts, and Trevorrow's direction, although the cast and the film's ambition received some praise.

In a small suburban town in the Hudson Valley, 11-year-old genius Henry Carpenter and his

younger brother Peter are being raised by their single mother Susan, a waitress who is working

on writing children's books. Henry has used his intellect to invest successfully in the stock

market, building up a very substantial nest egg for his family. He also protects Peter from a

school bully and builds Rube Goldberg machines in their treehouse. Henry and Susan are both

fond of their next-door neighbor, Henry's classmate Christina Sickleman, who has recently

become glum.

Henry believes that he sees Christina being abused by her stepfather Glenn, the local

police commissioner. He reports the abuse to social services and the school principal, Janice

Wilder, but Glenn has connections throughout the local government, and Wilder is reluctant to

challenge the commissioner without "conclusive evidence". Henry is unable to get the authorities

to launch a serious investigation that would protect Christina. Henry tells his mother that when

someone is in trouble, those who can help must take action. He develops a detailed plan to rescue

Christina that he details in a notebook. After a violent seizure, he is taken to the hospital, where

he is diagnosed with a brain tumor and undergoes surgery. Anticipating his death, he tells Peter to

give Susan the notebook. Days later, Henry dies.

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 Susan is distraught at Henry's death and has difficulty functioning, but when Peter gives

her the notebook, she focuses on Henry's plan. She tries unsuccessfully to interest a nearby

social-services agency in opening an investigation. One night, from the boys' bedroom window,

she sees Glenn in Christina's room and decides to carry out the plan. The notebook and an

accompanying cassette tape describe Henry's step-by-step plan to kill Glenn with a sniper rifle

while covering Susan's tracks so that tracing the murder back to her will be impossible. Her alibi

is to be provided by executing the murder while Christina and Peter are performing at the school

talent show.

Susan slips away from the show, putting the plan into motion. As she is about to pull the

trigger, she realizes that Henry's plan, though ingenious, is the construct of a child, and she must

act as an adult. She immediately confronts Glenn and tells him that she will expose him for what

he has done to Christina. He replies that everyone will believe him, not her, and tells her that he

is going to call his police chief to come arrest her. At the same time, affected by Christina's dance

performance at the talent show, Principal Wilder decides to follow through on the abuse

accusation and contacts the authorities. Glenn returns home, calls his relative at Social Services,

and learns that an investigation is being opened into his abuse of Christina. As the police arrive at

his house, he kills himself. Susan legally adopts Christina as her daughter. She also finishes

writing one of her children's books, as Henry had urged her to do.

IV. REFERENCES

 "The Book of Henry". British Board of Film Classification. Retrieved

May 25, 2017.

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 https://www.vulture.com/2017/06/the-book-of-henry-movie-review-a-

unique-kind-of-terrible.html

 Eren James- “The Book of Henry” article

 https://www.rox.com

 "The Book of Henry (2017)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved February 9,

2021.