10 Movie Endings That Are Secretly Depressing
9. The Book Of Henry
Plot:
Add 1 part misunderstood smart kid slice-of-life, 1 part family drama, and 1 part pure WTF and you have The Book of Henry. No summery can do it justice. Henry is a brilliant child prodigy with a flaky mom and a less brilliant younger brother. Henry's whimsy, smarts and controlling nature keep the family together.
After Henry dies his mother begins to follow a set of direction left by him. Directions on how to murder their neighbor who is abusing his step-daughter. The story end on a syrupy sweet note with dead-Henry's family adopting the daughter and her father getting a non-murdery comeuppance.
But Wait...
The movie seems to think this a happy ending, but is it really? Henry is sure Christina is being abused, but we don't ever see this onscreen. No one ever talks to her about the situation. Christina knowing she has a support system who would testify and help protect her might give her the strength she needs to collect evidence. Or whatever actions she, as the victim, wants to take.
Instead, she just hangs in the shadows of the movie and sad dances. Her reward is to be adopted by a family that manipulates her life so that she has to live with them and to be raised by a woman who almost shot a man in the head because her 11-year old told her to.