12 Movies That Tried Too Hard To Innovate (And Sucked Anyway)
2. The Book Of Henry
The Book of Henry, since it looked at a serious issue (child abuse) through the eyes of children, was a risky project, but it's unlikely anyone predicted it being this bad.
From the trailers, this was sold to us as the story of a child genius named Henry (Jaeden Martell) trying to rescue his next-door neighbour and crush Christina (Maddie Ziegler) from her abusive stepfather (Dean Norris), but that was misleading marketing. The film contains various shocking, out-there twists which go way too far.
Firstly, in a pointless and emotionally manipulative mid-film twist Henry suddenly dies of a brain tumour. Secondly, it turns out that before he died he'd left behind a notebook for his mother (Naomi Watts) which contained a plan to save Christina.
The plan: to get a sniper rifle and shoot the abuser dead. Unfortunately, that isn't a typo.
Since this is a film which is often sentimental and whimsical in tone yet combines this with an ultra-dark and ridiculous story in which a young child plots to murder another human being (and the mother almost goes through with it too), this is one of the most misjudged films... well, ever.
Seriously, what the actual hell was this?