The Art of Storytelling and The Book of Henry
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- Опубліковано 19 гру 2017
- Clickbait title: 7 Reasons The Book of Henry FAILS
The Book of Henry is pretty close to an ideal awful movie. There's dimensions to watching the film that I can't convey fully in a condensed video, like how stop-start the plots are, how Henry gets sick and the movie basically stops what it was doing for twenty minutes waiting for him to die, and how watching the film is to go through a rolling process of trying to figure out what the film is trying to actually tell you. People who are familiar with Jurassic World should catch the similar ways that Book of Henry demonizes a woman for not behaving exactly and precisely as the mother figure that the filmmakers think she should be. Susan gets off light, though, since she isn't executed by dinosaur for the crime of texting.
Written and performed by Dan Olson
Twitter: / foldablehuman - Розваги
This movie features a wealthy person's idea of poverty, a stupid person's idea of intelligence, a sociopath's idea of empathy, and a mall ninja's idea of tactics.
Truth.
Great summary, but wtf is a mall ninja?
@@paperheartzz you know, the guy that buys all their tactical gear at the mall, but never uses it. The guy who uses a plate carrier to carry their cell phone and their Leatherman tool that they've never used to do anything except to open up bags of chips. The guy that has 15 swords hanging up on his wall and doesn't know how to use a single one.
@@paperheartzz someone who is into "martial arts" but mostly buys swords and ninja stars from a place in the third best mall in town called Cursed Cutlery
That is the perfect description 😁
"I wanted to give Henry emotional intelligence."
*Proceeds to write a character* *that's half Sheldon Cooper, half* *Jigsaw.*
so just full jigsaw
i feel like saying Sheldon is half Jigsaw, is giving him too much credit...
I actually scroll down to chuckle at this every time I watch the video
Draugyr i haven’t watched Big Bang Theory, but I have seen enough clips to know that Sheldon is an emotionally vacant nerd who, honestly, probably couldn’t think his way out of a wet paper bag unless it had an incorrect Star Trek reference written on it, whereas John Kramer (the original Jigsaw killer) had an actual backstory as to why he was who he was involving the death of his unborn child and his own imminent death to cancer, so it was an emotionally driven man who, through a twisted mirror, wanted to help those he tortured.
@@davidspring4003 "i haven’t watched Big Bang Theory, but I have seen enough clips to know that Sheldon is an emotionally vacant nerd who, honestly, probably couldn’t think his way out of a wet paper bag unless it had an incorrect Star Trek reference written on it" you ought to be in some sort of quotation book for that one
"3 extra 10-round detachable mags" It's incredibly funny to me that Henry thinks Susan will need to take 40 SHOTS to kill Glen.
I guess the idea is to cover up the murder by making it seem like she's a spree shooter? Or something?
@@TheChrisUmstadter Some time ago, I've heard that the buyer not getting any accessories with their gun is a red flag, because it suggests they'll most likely kill themselves with it or something. Maybe that was the intention, both in-universe and out.
Of course this purchase is sus for a few other reasons and I am overthinking a badly-written movie, but hey ho.
@@TheChrisUmstadter that would actually make sense if the final part of the plan wasn't throwing the gun away. Having 3 extra clips but no gun that match the spent casings of what killed Glen is a massive red flag
It makes sense, 40 rounds is NOT that much to carry and you rather have them and not need them than the other weay around.
@@michalsoukup1021she’s going to possibly reload up to 3 times in the course of taking out a single target in a stealth situation?
Say what you will, but it's an incredible achievement in character writing to make a movie about a child dying of brain cancer where the audience ends up rooting for the cancer.
That cancer was only on-screen for a short time but it had a lot of development. Truly impressive.
Colin Trevorrow moment
That cancer bravely fought that boy to a draw and died. I didn't even know he was sick
"he's not going to sell a gun to an 11 year old" Dan he's ALMOST TWELVE
Clearly Dan has never played Persona 5; kids get sold guns all the time!
@@JeanMarceaux Guns, swords, axes, bdsm equ- I mean whips, more swords, rocket launchers, etc.
@@dominikgonciarz3755 does Morgana count as a bdsm device or is it just a torture tool?
@@JeanMarceaux Honestly, there is very little difference between the two.
@@dominikgonciarz3755 true, true.
"It was my brother's dying wish that his ashes be disposed of by being thrown at random people. He was kind of a dick like that"
This made me giggle.
My dying wish is to have my mortal remains thrown in Jeff Bezos' face.
I didn't say anything about being cremated
😂😂😂 I needed that laugh, thank you
See if there was a character who just said “when I die. Take my ashes onstage. And throw me at people. Say it’s art.” I would probably unironically love that character. That’s fuckin great
@@CaptainCathode _THUNPP_ *man screaming*
I dunno which is worse, supplanting your dead brother as Enchilada #1 because he died or staying Enchilada #2 as a constant reminder you'll never be better than your dead brother who died.
Trick question, worst is becoming Butterfly #2
I’d prefer to be burrito #1, enchilada #1 is corny anyways
"Why do I have to be enchilada #3?"
"Because your new sister/possibly abused girl who's dad I was going to kill is now enchilada #2"
I'm Enchilada #1 now. Say it. Say it!
"At Harvard, he [Gregg Hurwitz] was a student of psychologist Jordan Peterson who influenced his writing."
- Wikipedia
LMAO
Bruuuh💀
That explains... *so* much.
No shit, really? Lol
Certified lmao moment, to say the least
that explains the extremely unhealthy way he views "geniuses" as surperior people who are always right
movies like this baffle me not just because they're bad but because they could SO EASILY be fixed. And with 18 years to write the script it- boggles the mind. Just get rid of the mom.
Mom abandons kids. Henry, a child prodigy, is now the Adult of the house. He cannot call CPS on his neighbor because then they might look into his and his brother's situation and he's terrified of the two of them being separated. He makes money in order to keep their house and the appearance of hard working parents who can never be around. His notes on this "perfect murder" aren't instructions, they're the reflections of a kid who is angry, forced to grow up much too soon, and can't figure out how everyone seems to ignore kids suffering. After his death his younger brother finds the notes and takes them to be instructions because he's a tiny kid grieving the loss of his only parental figure whom he thought the world of.
Guess I'll just have to save this script for Home Alone 9: This Time He's Got A Sniper Rifle.
But that would require actual tragedy. We need Henry Mary Sue to make everything work out to a happy ending, that's how movies go!
There's actually a webcomic called Humor Me that has a similar setup to what you described and it is in fact much better
@@Talisguy I blame this movie for the last jedi
@@murciadoxial8056 lolwut?
@@freddiekruger3339 colin trevorow was supposed to, not only direct, but to write ep 8, but then this movie comes out, he gets fired immediately and they have to run around and find someone to replace trevorow, so they throw in rian johnson, but he has a pretty short amount of time to write a new script and they have no time to do substantial rewrites, there is no time to iron out the fucked up script, and them movie turns out to be a complete disaster.
Just want to point out that the same kid Henry makes fun of is the kid shown being bullied during Henry’s opening monologue. What a likable protagonist.
I want THAT kid's story. He seemed like a sweet, funny normal little boy.
My heart just broke for a fictional tertiary character
@Zleep God, Now I wanna give that poor child a hug and encourage him to follow his dream despite what stupid Henry thinks of it. 😣
@@sadtitties222 Yeah! Maybe this kid will MAKE dodgeball an Olympic sport! You don't know shit, Henry.
Totally Nameless Thats a comedy Id watch.
"I'm a child who talks and thinks like a 40 year old divorcee with no social skills" is the worst trope ever made. That's problem #1 with the film imho
He's baby jordan peterson
I don't have any proof of that, but the suspiscion, that this is a trope applied exclusively by male writers onto male characters (boys). This would propably somewhat go hand in hand with UlvenAspiration calling this "baby Jordan Peterson", as Peterson very often talks about his perception of masculinity.
I find it fascinating that a script from a professional screenwriter that was in the making for 18 years is worse with this trope than a freaking Harry Potter fanfic literally called "Methods of Rationality".
That fic starts off seemingly portraying the trope straight. Then it start a sublot about team competitions (between Him, Draco and Hermione).
The narrative hypes up the the first one as a battle between him and Draco.
An ideological clash of "creative chaos vs. strict order"
Only for them both to lose to Hermione. Because she was humble enough to ask her team for their opinions, listened to them, learned their strength/weaknesses and worked from there.
Unlike two self-proclaimed geniuses who based their entire plan on proving their points on "chaos vs. order" debate.
And just an icing on the cake - before the competition even started, "rational" Harry was unironically: "Harry was slightly annoyed by the way the Boy-Who-Lived had been demoted from supreme dominance to one of three equal rivals just by entering the contest, but he expected to get it back soon".
Which adds so much satisfaction to the moment when his "I'm smart so I'm better than you at everything"-view clashed with reality.
"Book of Henry" author seems to share his character worldview instead of concerning himself with such boring things as reality.
Henry is a genius = he is always correct and is physically can't not exceed average "non-geniuses" with decades of experience.
So of course he beats janitor at checkers with one move.
Of course he can buy an untraceble car and have it delivered wherever he wants without raising any questions.
Of course, he traded for millions of dollars ("600k in stocks and more in bonds"+money he spent on the freaking car) while being 11 years old (how much time had he had to trade?) and while having all of his market knowledge from newspapers.
Of course, he explains his own diagnosis to his neurosurgeon AND IS CORRECT.
I think that is an actual problem. And trope "11 years old genius who acts like a 40 year old divorcée with no social skills" can be extremly entertaing if used tastefully like "Methods of Rationality" does.
Honestly comparison between the two can be turned into a case study of "how not to do and how it could be done".
(And I wrote huge wall of text for 3 more points, but realized that nobody is gonna read about every little detail. If you are curious to read more, just tell me. But here I'll leave only main point)
The best indicator of good writing is the way characters around "the genius" are written:
Are they just punching bags for him to prove superiority or have a solid ground to stand on?
In MoR the further you go the more you realize that the characters Harry is being dissmisive jerk towards, have their reason to do "irrational" things. And the attitude "I am the protagonist of the universe" have got Harry easily manipulated by some of the adults with their own agendas. Contrast it with adults like the checkers lady, the teacher who asks "why are you in this class" and dammit Janysse.
And since you can't expect a character to have an empathy when the author has none, the writing of genius's peers is even more important.
if Henry, treats dodgeball kid and everyone else in the class as just a punching bag to feel superiour to, then it can be a good character flaw.
But it requires author to not feel the same way.
MoR at the second half sometimes jumps to the POV of normal 11 olds who are double dissmissed by "rational" Harry. And that are some of the best chapters in the entire fic. For me, it perfectly reacreates early books' comfy vibe "kids meddling around their madhouse of a school in a passionate search for adventures to inflict upon themselves".
Book of Henry's author, on the other hand, doesn't care even about plot-crucial characters like Christine
So I believe him if he says that he tried to give Henry as much emotional maturity as he could imagine.
But I'm still fascinated that after 18 years of a writing career and making decent enough connections to to make his dream movie, he isn't more in touch with reality than a lonely fanfic writer
@@ar1i_k Oh I happened to read that fanfiction actually! But yeah, I think the trope is not about child geniuses, but geniuses in general being good at everything. I think that's one of the major flaws of "Good Will Hunting", Matt Damon's character is just TOO genius, too good at everything, it breaks the immersion. It would in fact have added an extra layer of psychological depth to have him be crazy excellent at math, but just okay at the rest, in such a way that he has an intellectual comfort zone and there actually are things that challenge him intellectually. Would he get out of his comfort zone? How does he deal with a bruised ego by thinking himself smarter than he is? That creates a much richer character I think, because superintelligence in everything is just a superpower, not something that works well in storytelling that aims to be rather naturalistic.
Perfectly put.
A grown man writing this and seeing Henry as "emotionally intelligent" is horrifying.
Physically that man's an adult, but mentally he's forever a disturbed child.
Narcissists invariably mistake sociopathy with emotional intelligence. Or "you need to sacrifice for me" confused with "i am capable of self respect"
But, on the other hand, completely on brand for Trevorrow
He's like one of those people that constantly berates their SO, and then passes it off as caring
@@MalleeMateTheir s.o.?
If Henry's such a genius, why didn't he realize he could just tell Susan to hire an accountant after he died? There was absolutely no reason for him to try to teach her finances. She can pay someone to do that for her, and she won't risk screwing things up that way. And for that matter, I fail to see how a sniper rifle in the tree fort is a better idea for the murder than just hiding behind a tree until Glenn's back was turned and shooting him with a handgun. So much less evidence to dispose of that way, and you have plausible deniability if you get caught with the gun before the murder. Admittedly, this sort of overengineering does seem like the kind of thing a child prodigy without a lot of practical experience would come up with, but the movie seems to show no self-awareness that it's a sign of immaturity, not genius.
So what if the movie is seen through Henry's eyes. He is right, he is not condescending, and he is the only one that can fix it. When Susan deviates from the script, she stops seeing the world through that same immature lense the tapes convinced her it was. This doesn't fix everything, but it does resolve some of the tonal issues.
Simple dude , Henry was clearly doing insider trading and embezzling funds . Like the video said, Henry is a dick.
In that case, all the shortcomings of the grown ups should have to be exaggerated, as the video stated. If Henry sees bruises, the girl has to have bruises. If Henry thinks his mom is negligent, then the framing has to show us that. In Henry's eyes, the world's apathy is screaming, and if the movie tells a story through his eyes, it has to show that. Instead, as the video stated, they were scared to paint any characters in actual bad light, or even with severe faults.
also, if he's such a fucking genius why doesn't he take a good camera and films the abuse? The movie shows that Henry can see it from his damn window.
Also the scriptwriter went to HARVARD. For all aspiring writers, take this as a sign of hope, institutions don't make great writers, hard work does.
It's funny(ish) how suicide at the end of a movie always means "guilt confirmed, no further questions", even though suicide at the *start* of a movie almost always means "investigate the shit out of this because it's never just suicide".
This is more just a consequence of structure than a particular flaw in this movie. If something happens at the start of a movie, the movie should be about that thing. If something happens at the end of the movie, it's a resolution.
Not saying you're wrong but just adding more context.
@@midn8588Yeah it's just the difference between a call to action and a resolution of said action.
@@midn8588 - Yeah, I'm just imagining a really weird Narrative Forensics department whose job it would be to determine whether we're at the start or the end of a story so they can decide whether the police should care or not.
@@FTZPLTC oh that's easy, if credits that follow the suicide are on a black background - then: case closed. If they are accompanied by a stylized music video, then it's investigatin' time!
@@ELEKTROSKANSEN The idea of diegetic credits that everyone nearby sees whenever a narrative begins or ends is really funny to me.
Here's a nitpick.
The writers seem to like using the word "contingency" to sound smart, but obviously have no idea what it actually means. A contingency is an unlikely future event that can be accounted for and mitigated. So while "accounting for contingencies" is a real concept, the movie doesn't actually understand what that means, just that it's something smart people say. For instance:
A Rube Goldberg machine works because it is completely deterministic. Although it may have the appeance of being "random" and working anyway, the beauty of one is how it highlights the predictable nature of, say, how far a ball will travel in the air when you control for every other variable when you launch it. You don't set a "contingency" for when it lands somewhere else, because you know it won't. The idea that "accounting for every contingency" in a Rube Goldberg machine is therefore self-defeating nonsense dialogue.
Similarly, Henry doesn't actually have any contingencies in his plan, aside from "things will just work out perfectly anyway because the writers are hacks", which is what happens in the end when he fails to account for the contingency of his mom not having the heart to shoot someone. In fact they set up scenes the way you would if you were trying to convey "the planner is such a genius here that complex human behaviour is reduced to predictable clockwork", like if you were shooting a prison break movie and you showed characters lifting a manhole just as the guards both turn away during a shift change.
TL;DR the writer is a the worst kind of moron, the pseudo-intellectual type.
+
Wow, thank you for taking the time to actually write down a detailed explanation, I didn't actually know what a Rube Goldberg machine was and I appreciate the improved ability to see how linguistically absurd this movie is.
The contingency thing bothered me, too. If you've planned for contingencies, you've created room for error. Anyone claiming to be a strategist who says "You must plan for every contingency" is...going to die of an anxiety induced heart attack, not brain cancer, but their plans would produce enormous room for error.
To be fair to Susan's flower-as-a-metaphorical-Jesus/Henry story, Henry's death DID make things better. Specifically, it allowed Goddammit Janice to enjoy a quiet lunch for the first time in years
And spared Susan from his incessant nagging for the rest of her life
Yeah 😂😂😂
@Riddle13 My God, the incessant nagging is just unbearable for me 😭
Now she can finally get around to finishing Gears of War
@@ryancampbell8645 He’s somehow both her kid and the WORST boyfriend ever. One who has bought in wholesale to the pickup artist BS and needs to constantly neg her to make her feel terrible about herself.
I can´t belive this movie actually has a "and then everyone clapped scene"
Oh snap! I wrote the original story that meme comes from!
@@likethebookshop are you joking, or is that true?
@@DerAnanasKing we will never know
"Yay! We're inhaling the remains of a dead kid! Maybe he's blessing us!"
@@likethebookshop
I remember that.
I was there.
Everyone clapped.
Am I the only person who thinks there's kind of an idea for a horror movie here? A terrifying bad seed type continues to control his sheeplike, unstable and grieving mother to carry out his will even after his death?
I'm convinced this is a Brian De Palma or David Lynch script that was accidentally produced as a "heartwarming" kids' movie.
"You must sent a bad man to the cornfield."
@@arturoaguilar6002 There's a children of the corn reference waiting to be born in that sentence? ;) :P
It's like an inverse Norman Bates.
More like a Saw prequel.
Henry: "violence isn't the worst thing ever, Apathy is."
Also Henry: Trades stocks on the phone instead of protecting Peter from getting beaten up.
Plot spoiler: Henry wasn't Jesus, he was actually John Galt.
you would dare to question the Lord and His Prophet?
Wall Street 3: Money Has A Strict Bedtime
Man's not apathetic about his stocks, you got to give him that
One of the weirdest things about this is that I am certain Henry being a child prodigy stock trader is a reference to William Gaddis' 1975 novel J.R., which… again, this would make sense if this movie were *supposed* to be a black comedy or a satire (as J.R. is), but just feels like a really weird allusion to make in a movie playing a premise this deranged this straight.
I
despise
child protagonist movies where they just write a tiny adult
yknow i was gonna say something like "it's hard to find the balance between dehumanizing them/making them too stupid and making them Tiny Adults" but
this . this movie doesn't have that excuse. that's just an adult man that they've passed off as a child. they couldn't even pull the autism card if they wanted to because _that's not how autistic children Act_
Especially when that tiny adult is clearly how the writer/director sees themself.
it's not even a tiny adult here. It's just a child who happens to be very knowledgeable about things stereotypically labeled as being "things that adults do." Think about it, is there anything about henry that makes you think "adult" other than that he knows about money, has artistic tastes of maybe a dude in his 20s, and speaks with a slightly above his age vocabulary? This movie's character development hinges entirely on a hyperbolic caricature of middle class society, with virtually no consideration for the kind of nuances that make characters realistic, such as:
1. A parent who enjoys video games -- that would be awesome, especially fitting for a mom trying to be "the cool one". What does this movie do? Haha gaming childish and bad, look how funny it is that a child is telling his parent to stop gaming. 18 years of creative work and they resorted to 80s sitcom tropes? Seriously?
2. A child who's into Fight Club -- yeah a critical analysis of tyler durden is technically reserved for someone in college or at least older than 11, but come on, not every 11 year old is playing with hotwheels and watching spongebob. But according to this movie, if you enjoy breaking down interesting characters then that makes you a boomer who talks about stocks and taxes all day.
This trope can be done right if written well. Look at Artemis Fowl book series. Artemis is a prodigy and sometimes acts like a tiny adult but it works because he's well-written.
Too bad the movie adaptation sucked so bad.
Even worse, a tiny Ricky Gervais. The human personification of r/iamverysmart.
*G O D D A M M I T J A N I C E*
*H E S C A T T E R S H E N R Y'S A S H E S O V E R T H E C R O W D*
"LET'S GO SCREW!!!" Whoops! I had a flashback of audience participation in a midnight showing of a different movie. With the name being pretty similar to Janice. Sorry.
How dare they do Tonya Pinkins like that. Why were so many good actors in this terrible movie?
P A U L
@@SpeedyXGunz I just looked through WAY too many comments to find this.
As a teacher, I need to say that Goddamnit Janice doesn't need any kind of concrete evidence. In fact we're trained to report any form of suspected abuse no matter why we think there may be abuse. Making a report that turns out isn't true has absolutely no repercussions.
This probably isn't explored in the film, but the claim that it has "absolutely no repercussions" seems a bit naive when we're talking about a police commissioner whose brother also works for family services and is apparently in a position with so little oversight that he's the one who's assigned to respond to CPS calls on his own family members. Maybe there are no "official" repercussions, as per mandated reporting, but many people would be wary (rightfully so) of drawing the ire of an obviously politically connected high ranking policeman.
David Neely That is a good point and true in the context. However, I believe these reports are also anonymous.
LexieDi If a kid were to get bruises on their legs from fucking SOCCER PRACTICE schools would immediately assume the worst.
@@ruskerdax5547 but later Goddamnit Janice just calls someone and solves everything no questions asked
You could make an anonymous report, but the kind a school would generate is not iirc. It would also be relitively easy to figure out who made the complaint based on the evidence presented.
The statement "without any repercussions" bothers me in the other way as well. There are lots of repercussions, just not necessarily for the reporter.
Right down to the details like the foolproof audio distraction, the sniper rifle smuggled into the tree house, and hiding the body in a creek, this sounds like a murder plan I'd come up with if I played Hitman for 72 hours straight and then took a briefcase to the head.
Loool, shooting an old man from a treehouse at a (Whittleton) creek is literally a feat in hitman II, I can't fucking even
@@youtube-kit9450 Well done 47, now that Janus is out of the way, we can adopt Lucas Grey with these forged papers.
@@youtube-kit9450 You've also got me tempted now to see if I can lure him over to the creek edge and snipe him in, ideally maintaining silent assassin. It's probably going to mean a lot of unconscious bystanders, but that's what empty houses are for.
Lmao expanding the comment and seeing the punchline was awesome
I so desperately want to see "detective reviews the murder plot in Book of Henry"
Henry is the worst kind of "precocious child" character -- the one that the writer doesn't realize is basically just a tiny, abusive adult. I've never wanted a child to die of brain cancer more.
low bar I hope
He’s so annoying, but honestly I hate how when it comes to characters if you’re smart you have to be a completely sociopath, that or a least a jerk. Why do “smart” characters always have to be so full of themselves
Number Five from The Umbrella Academy is a funny subversion of this, because he is actually in-universe a 50-year-old hitman trapped in a 13-year-old's body.
@@LeoMajors I'M THE DADDY HERE!
@@XiaoIsMyHusbandBTW to be fair, it checks out in the case of a prodigious 11 year old. His attitude reminds me of my days in gifted kid programs back in elementary and middle school.
"Hey-boss,- we-found-your-body-down-at-the-creek creek"
17:18
@@IrvingIV "Your" because he's the police commissioner, ie the boss
@@LostieTrekieTechie
And, of course, because he'd be dead.
Down along the heybosswefoundadeadbodyalong the creek, I remember something.
*Heeyyy boss we found ya bady down at the creek bada bing bada boom*
Teacher: "why don't you go to the advanced classes?"
Henry: "Cause it's important for my psycho-social development."
*proceeds to not have any healthy interaction with his peers at school*
That's semi-believable though, in terms of that presumably being the system's justification for mainstreaming him despite it being to no actual benefit.
@@DStecks But they don’t want to mainstream him. The teacher is trying to get him into a gifted program/school where he could actually be challenged by the material, and that’s his excuse for resisting her.
I think that line is potentially character-revealiing. In 'regular' classes, it's basically guaranteed that he's the smartest kid in the room, and he's not particularly challenged. If he goes to advanced classes, his ego and self-identity as 'the smartest person' might take a serious hit. From what we see he doesn't care for the social side, but being recognised by his peers as intellectually superior clearly matters.
@@DStecks The system doesn't typically mainstream kids out of advanced classes, that's usually a parent's decision and in this case was probably Henry's as well. Schools forcibly mainstreaming kids for social reasons is usually something that happens to special needs kids, not "gifted" kids.
i interpreted it as:
some higher-up in the school gave that as a reason why he wouldn't be allowed to skip a grade or something, and he repeated it sarcastically.
Imagine how good this film would be if it were a comedy.
Midway through the movie, we find out that Glen's daughter is named Kate, and Christina (whose safety Henry is worried about) is actually a houseplant.
Susan is under the impression that Henry is a completely average kid. "Doesn't your son trade the stock market yet?"
Henry secures the gun himself. The gun store owner lies to him about what kind of gun it is. Susan shoots Glen with a paintball gun.
Glen, still alive and splattered with paint, points out all the holes in Henry's plan. "Wait, what river? You mean the creek? This creek?"
The paintball joke would be the best climax this kind of movie could have. When Henry gets the gun and stores it in the treehouse, the audience wonders why it looks so fake and plasticky. Even if they can't give a real gun to a child actor, couldn't they get a more convincing fake?
It fades from their mind, and the climactic scene is too dark to clearly see the prop Susan is using. But then, when Glen is shot with a bright _splat_ instead of a loud _boom,_ we flash back to the gun shop and are reminded of the fake plastic gun prop, _which was a paintball gun with the orange 'this isn't a real gun' thingy sawed off!_
"Look, I'm on the east bank, I'm on the west bank. It isn't exactly the Mississippi!"
honestly i would love to watch a rube goldberg murder plot concieved by a child to play out in a comedic tone. this movie was way too serious for what it is lmao
edit: just realized this is what the home alone movies kind of are
Oh god yes.
This would be amazing
Dude, write some dialogue and fucking do it already! There's ass upon ass upon franchise upon franchise upon remake upon remake stacked to the ceilings clogging mainstream theaters every year, go pitch "book of Henry but funny" and give us a ray of sunlight down here!
The reason the Christina subplot feels so soulless is because it is. He didn't write about child abuse because he had a compelling story about it to tell, he did it to immediately flatten the moral complexity of the movie.
At the end of the day, this is a movie that just really, really wants to show off a child's Rube Goldberg murder scheme playing out in real time... but murder is a heavy thing to get an audience on-board with, and that's why he needed Christina. Child abuse flips a primal switch in the minds of most people, and it's one of the few crimes a person can commit for which the lion's share of people, regardless of background or circumstance, will immediately be open to the possibility of murder in retaliation. Throw in a little of that, and boom! Now 98% of the runtime can be spent on what the director actually cares about. No need for Christina to feature past that, because she's already filled her purpose.
It's all just so... mercenary. I'll decline to make moral judgements of a man I've never met, but this isn't the kind of movie that reflects particularly warmly upon its writer.
should have made glen a landlord instead
@@arthropodqueen Based and good
@@arthropodqueen That, or like go into the fact he's a police commissioner, show him being a corrupt tyrant! I know "wanting to hurt a cop" is probably too much for the author to handle, but still the setup was there.
@@hogandthezoomer8041Yeah, why make him a cop if it's not gonna play part In the narrative? The Mom already took a pause when realizing her instructions are from a vindictive twelve year olds!
@@erikbihari3625 I think the purpose of him being a cop in the story is to explain away the "why don't they just call the police" issue
Y'know, something just occurred to me: isn't it kind of contradictory to have a character who is presented as a Christ allegory while also being obsessed with material wealth?
Nah, total subversion of your pre-conceived expectations. You know, like that TLJ? ;)
Not if it's GOP Jesus.
Also murder
Verily, verily, I say unto you, you need to buy a new car, for I speak not of my own Accord
VirtualBoy500 Yeah. It’s the same lack-of-insight that leads to people owing solid gold crucifix necklaces, and that one Nazi dying in the Last Crusade.
"Oh, and we can't forget the scene where Henry, cop on the edge, bursts into God-dammit-Janice's office and threatens to turn in his badge."
For real that scene felt like he's Serpico.
Should have burst in with a LMG and said "GoddamnitJanice, say hello to my little friend!"
As soon as I started reading this the video played the same thing
"Dirty Henry"
One of my all-time favorite lines from Dan
Henry is an abusive husband/father/brother/friend/son. He is the omni-abuser.
I'm d e a d.
@@lucascattai9447 You're dead because Henry killed you. RIP.
And student! 🙃
He has become Death: Abuser of Worlds.
imho his relationship with peter is actually really sweet and healthy... unlike his relationship with every other person in his life ofc
To add to the 'they're not really poor" argument. they don't have a grocery list or coupons, they just wander the store, the kids are able to just pick up items off the shelf and put them into the cart.
But they child wants a shiny new car to compensate for his low self esteem. You're not really an 11 year old man when you drive an old rust bucket. That's the only sign of poverty, the mome refuses to buy a better car.
@@lagg1ebeing able to afford a new car but not doing so because the old one still works is just reasonable financing for a family in that situation. "But we can afford it" is not good enough reason to buy something like a new car
@@itayeldad3317 I mean, if you have $600k just sitting around not even invested, you *can* 100% afford to buy a new car, even if the old one still works. Perhaps if he actually explained this to her instead of being a dick, she would have bought the damn car and he could quit whinging about it.
@@orestes0883 Probably no. He comes across as someone who if you took away a source of whinging, they will fill it with another. There is no winning with it.
@@fleshhunter8703 Oh, I didn't mean he'd quit whinging entirely, only that he'd stop whinging about the car in particular 🤣
"Oh Jesus, they think they nailed it."
DYING
Still wondering if that pun was intentional
Henry didn't die from brain cancer he died from watching so much Rick and Morty.
The outside of his red notebook is just crusted all over with Szechuan sauce
It made his brain grow so much that it cracked his skull
I love Rick and Morty but this comment made me laugh bc it's so accurate lol x
Well, hmm, funny you mentioned that since Henry’s actor played Morty in those recent live-action ads 🤣
He was simply too powerful
I know this is kind of a minor point in the grand scheme... But does anyone else notice the amount of technological inconsistencies in this movie? Henry buys and sells stocks over the payphone based on what he reads in the financial pages of the newspaper and records his master plan on a Walkman, but does the family's financial planning on his Apple laptop while Susan plays Gears of War on their XBox? This isn't really a narrative problem, but it is heavily indicative of the way this guy had certain parts of the plot set in stone early on and just never changed them; lots of editing little pieces happened, but there was never a real overhaul of the whole story to make it consistent.
Yeah apparently the script first started being written in the 90s
Also the fact that new cars in the 2010s had GPS with logs that could show she went home during the talent show.
@@erraticonteuseSo a strong reason to not pester the Mom about upgrading her car
It's been years and I finally watched this movie. I'm really disappointed that no one ever mentioned the best part of this entire thing. When Susan is frantically driving to go shoot Glenn, dramatic music in the background, and it intercuts with clips of a child burping the alphabet on stage.
Oh man I've seen the movie and I completely forgot about that part...
The dodgeball kid also did a rap song with the word “shiznitz” and a mic drop.
Standing Ovation.
I still can't believe this isn't a comedy
@@consentclub8431 Plot twist: It was prior to Trevorrow. 😅
Reading this comment alone made me genuinely laugh aloud. I need to get my hands on the film as soon as humanly possible.
It's definitely super awesome when a female rape victim is created for, and exists solely for, motivating a male character. And super original too.
Good job guys!
@Ironclad tortilla chips Specifically, that's what Jordan Peterson taught this rancid sack of dildos of a man, as in his biography it's stated that he was a student of his and he had INFLUENCED HIS WRITING
Dirt Dauber - Seriously? Jordan Peterson taught him that? Like, he explicitly says that Peterson taught him that one should write female rape victim characters that only exist to motivate a male character?
I wonder if it was difficult for Susan to adopt a little girl when she's constantly inside of a refrigerator.
@@Markunator Maybe not directly, but the worldviews and philosophies that Peterson teaches would beget such ignorant story crafting.
Kig V2 - How so? And also, was Trevorrow a student of Peterson’s?
So... Sheila casually kissing a dying 11 year old is never brought up again? We're just... going to ignore that?
K then.
ytmoog Neither do I really, but I was kinda creeped out by how the movie itself never addresses it.
Like, why put the scene there in the first place? How is the audience supposed to interpret it? Is it part of the whole Jesus metaphor somehow? Just... WHY?
That whole scene before the kiss and the weird way Susan treats Henry as basically her dad/husband is pretty disturbing. I guess they're trying to make him "the adult" but it just comes off...really creepy.
It's especially poignant and weird given that this _is_ a story that condemns child molesters to death. Except there, I guess?
La Esmeralda Apparently a lot of people find kissing children normal as long as there’s no tongue involved. I still think it’s really weird, but, cultural differences? Or maybe my friends secretly have pedo relatives. :/
Well, it's one thing if you give your mom and dad kisses, they're family. But Sheila's not his mom soooooo
If Henry was an actual adult it would be terrifying. Like imagine if Henry was her husband who controlled all her finances and secretly hid money from her (written in her name), and his plan was to adopt the neighbor kid and kill her allegedly abusive step dad.
That would actually make an entertaining thriller romp, but alas
Henry is basically an emotionally abusive and controlling husband except as an 11 year old kid.
@@CNWhatImSaiyan It genuinely would. Where a father indoctrinates his family to commit murder and kidnapping after his death. I would watch that, here's a pitch for a Netflix series alright.
at least the hospital kiss scene with Sheila would be slightly less creepy?
but he made all the money himself and when a kid makes money from working they don’t owe it to their parent. makes no sense to flip it to be about a married couple who are legally required to merge their finances & should be honest about money with each other in case the other needs it - as the video says, the mom doesn’t seem to need Henry’s money. not even when he needed brain surgery.
I also love how Christine is just perfectly fine at the end, as if she has magically healed from enduring constant sexual abuse for her entire life.
It’s not like anything else about her existed, anyways
@@CNWhatImSaiyan sadly. I hate it when writers create female characters just to be sexual assault props.
@@Mindphuck93 The worst part is that we don’t get to see any real transgressions-not even the “bruises”-to make Glen actually villainous; we literally have to take Hank & Susan’s word for it
The movie should have been ABOUT her. Cut out all the child genius nonsense and give that screentime to her.
That too... was freaking weird. I knew the movie was so down the Mr Rodgers "make believe" tunnel that there was no point in stopping but it all wrapped up with a bow you couldn't help but say: "wat"?
This movie is begging to be a comedy.
Could you imagine how genuinely funny it could be if the premise was "Psychopathic child writes out a needlessly complex plan to kill someone that their parent(s) have to enact", except that it doesn't have the weight of child rape on the other end, instead something like "created a minor inconvenience for me once", it would be brilliant.
Sorry if he makes this point, haven't finished watching yet.
It WAS going to be a comedy. The film was originally gonna be a black comedy but apparently, the director didn't wanna make one so we got this mess.
Reading this I literally laughed out loud
i think you just described home alone
Directed by Wes Anderson lol
Psychopathic? Do you even know what that means? This comment section is just disgusting
*Henry from his grave* : Well Actually
WELLAKSHUALLY
@@LawrenceofCanadia Peter & Mom: *break out the ouija board*
The Board:
An important note about the grocery store scene: Henry is wrong, Susan is right, don’t jump in. In cases of abuse, you should NEVER accuse or tell off the abuser in any way, unless you are DAMN SURE you can protect the victim from that point forward. Because you aren’t the one who is going to pay for it in the end, the victim is.
I think my “favorite” part of this movie is that genius boy Henry doesn’t even actually understand Rube Goldberg Machines. It’s not about covering contingencies, it’s about being in complete control of what’s happening. There aren’t choices you need to plan for you create the only path that can be taken which is a far more apt metaphor for what the movie is trying to accomplish and they still manage to flub it
Sometimes I worry about trying to write "intelligent" characters because of the complaints that people make about the Big Bang Theory (supposedly the characters don't really act smart, just awkward while using esoteric language from "geeky things" - though clearly the truly biggest problem with it is that everyone in the series is a misanthropic caricature, just like almost every other sitcom). Watching this review (I refuse to watch the film), I suddenly feel much more confident in my capacity to write smart characters. 😂
@@M4TCH3SM4L0N3 it's much easir to write intelligent characters if you don't need to show their thinking more than once or twice.(A Hermione insteat of a Harry Potter)
@@guilhermetheodoro5759I think that's honestly kind of the problem. Creators keep writing characters who are broadly intelligent in multiple subjects, rather than with specialized intelligence. If you write a character with a single thing that they're good at, but they're just kind of your average person in every other aspect, then the author only has to be as smart as the character in that particular area. It's way easier to do some quick Google research about coding than it is to have a character who is just broadly good with "technology". And if you have a story like Harry Potter where the thing they're smart at is completely fictional, then the author can literally make the character as smart as they want because they not only right that character, but they also make the rules of the fictional thing.
I think it's just part of that weird kind of God worship that people have for "geniuses" where they assume if you're good at one thing, you must be good at everything. It's kind of a strange trope.
@@guilhermetheodoro5759 I feel like it's easier to write an intelligent character when you're writing from their perspective actually, you can go through their thought process and rationale, because intelligence is more than just having information, it's having a logical, rational and reasonable analytical mind. It's only harder if the author doesn't want to do research xP
Edit: Unless you mean the act of hiding the plan until it's dramatically appropriate, in which case, well yeah? But that's the same no matter whether the character is supposed to be intelligent or not...
I really want to grab Henry and shake him; PLANNING FOR CONTINGENCIES IS YOUR ROOM FOR ERROR! If you've planned for "every" contingency, you have enormous room for error, by definition.
God, watching this, I half-expected a scene where Susan would be driving back to the talent show, and put on a CD, which would play music before being interrupted with Henry's voice: "Don't worry, Mom. I knew you couldn't do it. In fact, I was hoping you wouldn't. The creek wouldn't have washed away his body, anyway. I'm sure you told him off in a way that will ensure that he finishes the job, himself. That's right, mom; I hope you have those custody papers, because Glen should be killing himself right about now. Thank you for being a good person." I'm actually amazed this DIDN'T happen, in the movie! What a load of garbage.
I would've at least respected the ridiculous lengths the film goes to if it went this far. As it is, there's just nothing of worth or respect here.
@@hardcut799 I agree. It would have addressed the "emotionally intelligent" part atleast a little bit. Whatever tho. Bad movie, has some good ideas but doesnt play them out fully.
Yeah I choose to believe Henry knew everything she would do. Maybe they're saving that scene for the sequel, where Henry reveals in said recording he built a computer that can connect to the internet many bakers dozens of years in the future and downloaded some of their medical journals, and she cures not only the kind of terminal brain cancer Henry had but all other forms of cancer.
And AIDS.
He would have done it himself but he ran out of time and spent the rest of his life coming up with this outrageous plan.
Alternative version: What you describe happens, except that she did shoot him.
@@CatCheshireThe ooooh. I likey
"You have to ask your eleven-year-old?"
"Twelve...he's almost twelve."
WHICH MEANS RIGHT NOW HE'S ELEVEN!! WHY DO YOU NEED TO CORRECT BOBBY MOYNAHAN WHEN HE WAS ALREADY RIGHT ABOUT YOUR SON'S AGE!?
This is hilarious
ZeroSum23 He's almost 30, if you don't think 18 years is very long.
Yeah, he's almost 40% done, the 60% left isn't much at all.
Because the joke is that she's trying to seem less 'crazy' (for lack of a better word) for taking advice from him by pretending he's a year older. The joke is obviously 1 year doesn't make a difference and he's 11 anyway. That isn't difficult to see and you make yourself look like you are just manufacturing your own outrage. Or you're stupid it doesn't seem too hard to understand.
I feel like the original commenters point was ridiculous that entire scene was.
Wouldn’t have minded a mention of the doctor who is seemingly pursuing a romantic relationship with the traumatized mother of a patient who died in her arms days earlier.
Yeah, that's in the movie too...and I have no idea why it's in the film because that subplot goes nowhere...
@@tomhur1 All these non-Henry & Susan characters are just a bunch of Schrodinger’s Cats, in this movie
"I cared more about emotional intelligence"
> Proceeds to write a character so socially dysfunctional, even I, an autistic furry, can tell he's extremely inept
Unironically you sound amazing
Bruh the furry part alone is enough to count your critique as valid goddamn
My guy pressed the self destruct button just to drive home the point. Respect
emotional intelligence doesn’t automatically translate into specific behavior. how does his inept-ness make it hard to believe he could be emotionally intelligent? smart people still aren’t successful at everything, esp not as children. you can be inept without being stupid and you can definitely be smart and still fail a lot.
@@lithiumkid it definitely translates to some specific behaviors, or the absence of certain behaviors
you can tell someone *isn't* emotionally intelligent when [insert most of the things henry does]
For anyone unsure, $1500 is replacing a household appliance money, "our fridge died" kind of money.
Lee Kalba yeah, Maytag money as we call it on the street
To be the kind person who has $1500 lying around as appliance money.
It's a hit for sure, but if you need a fridge, it's cheaper to buy outright than to finance. It's not "appliance money", it's "shit happens" money.
Anyone who's struggled with poverty knows how expensive it is to be poor. - James Baldwin
I'm sure it is cheaper to pay for things up front. No need to deal with interest or financing. Most Americans can't handle a sudden $500 expense. For them, $1500 isn't even shit happens money, it's we're fucked money. Still, it's relative, and if Susan has 680k sitting in a checking account, a $1500 withdrawal is nothing.
Yeah, a sudden $1500 expense would screw a lot of people over, but in the abstract $1500 isn't an extreme value, even for poor people. Cars, appliances, home repairs, it's just not a huge amount of money in the scope of things.
"Henry has brain surgery and no one is concerned about how they're going to pay for it." Wait, why would they worry about... oh, yeah, United States!
The number one factor for personal bankruptcy is not being able to pay health care or health care debt.
USA NUMBA ONEEEE
@Lola Montez I think you missed the point of bringing that up. The point was that the reveal of her having a bunch of money stowed away wasn't actually a big reveal because they clearly had enough money already. If she thought they were poor, she would've been worrying about insurance coverage or lack thereof.
@Lola Montez Why wasn't such an obvious flaw noticed early on? We know universal healthcare is possible so what did Obamacare miss?
It’s the same with the military. Our budget for this year was 760 billion. Where does all that money go? Why, into our own pockets in the form of government contract jobs. It’s a subsidy for our own economy. And we have to stop. Both our military and our healthcare are both artificial means of boosting our economy in ways which hurt ourselves and others. It’s gonna hurt in the short term. But if we ever want to be better as a country, it’s gotta happen
Any issue of money in this movie is resolved by Henry's magical big brain money making powers.
I find it really ironic how Henry spends this movie white knighting for abuse victims while spending the entire runtime emotionally abusing his mother.
POV: you've paused the video to better concentrate on the fixes and fanfics in the comments
I just came back to this comment section after four years, and there's quite a lot of interesting fixes and fanfics since then. Wonder if the video got linked somewhere.
@@lmabacus404 at least in my case it's just part of my usual rotation of comfort videos
HE SCATTERS HENRYS ASHES OVER THE CROWD
HE SCATTERS HENRY'S ASHES OVER THE CROWD
ua-cam.com/video/6OrGhs2TQDM/v-deo.html
*standing ovation*
PETER SCATTERS HENRY'S ASHES OVER THE CROWD.
*H E S C A T T E R S H E N R Y'S A S H E S O V E R T H E C R O W D*
What if, in the end, it was revealed that Glen wasn't actually abusive. What seemed like abuse was actually just emotional arguments between the two after the passing of Christina's mom. The reason she puts emphasis on "step-dad" is because after losing her birth father and then her mom, she has difficulty accepting Glen as her father, not because she doesn't love him but because she's developed an irrational fear of becoming close to anyone, because she doesn't want to lose anyone else. Glen, meanwhile, has difficulty connecting Christina and is completely at a loss for what to do, which leads to occasional fits of rage at the situation as a whole. When Susan goes to shoot Glen, she overhears a conversation he's having with his brother through the walkie-talkie, where he's venting about the situation, and suddenly it all clicks into place. The bruises Henry see's aren't from Glen, they're from Christina, who has begun to self-harm to stop herself from crying. That's also why the bruises aren't visible, because she's making an active effort to hide them. Glen didn't just get a pass because his brother was in CPS, there genuinely wasn't anything wrong. That being said, the stress of being accused of abusing his child lead to a fit of depression. Christina caught onto this, and also became depressed at not being able to do anything. Glen isn't a perfect person, but he's trying his best despite the poor situation he's in.
This leads to Susan's ultimate revelation. Henry was wrong. Dangerously wrong. By trying too hard to be smart, he actively made the situation worse. By never talking to Christina, he failed to realize the true core of the problem. In the end, despite his intelligence, he made the same assumptions any child would. His friend is sad and he overhears yelling, she must be abused. She doesn't like to talk about it? She must be too sad and needs to be saved. And of course, if Glen is an abuser, he needs to die. There is no other resolution. This would also tie back to the scene in the grocery store. Henry wanted to interfere with the couple, despite knowing nothing about the situation, because he felt that he knew better. But, like what would have happened with the couple, by interfering in the situation without taking the time to learn the whole scope of the situation, by playing hero, Henry made things worse.
Realizing this, Susan decides to just walk away from it all. Instead of shooting Glen, she knocks on his door, talks him into coming to the talent show, and offers a lift. After the talent show, Glen and Christina hug, and it's implied that they're going to hash things out. And then, final scene. Susan visits Henry's grave. Finally, a concrete visual indicating Henry's death, showing Susan finally accepting the reality that she's never going to have this person in her life anymore. The moment is quiet, no dialogue. She stares for a bit, before placing something at the foot of the grave. It's Henry's notebook. The shot rests on the gravestone as we hear Susan walk away, her footsteps fading into the distance. A few seconds pass, when suddenly a new set of footsteps approach. A shadow is cast over the stone, and they seem to have something in their hands. A ball? They begin tossing and catching the ball with one hand, the rubbery impact revealing what it is. A dodgeball.
"I told you, didn't i? I'm going to be the most awesomenest dodgeball player, and no one can stop me."
Cut to black.
The end?
Wow...SO Much better.
Someone make this movie
Holy shit that ending! I did not see that coming!
You can’t hear or see it, but I’m recreating that one clapping scene from Citizen Kane in my bedroom, at 3:30 in the AM.
I like that idea, though I do think that the scene we see at the store was unambigiously domestic abuse, so someone jumping in to save that girl would have been a good thing even without knowing all the information about them.
The way Henry acts about his mom's video games, he's like the world's youngest boomer.
he's supposed to be acting like her parent so yeah, henry is doing the screenwriter's version of GREAT parenting
"this were better back when i was 6"
“It’s really great how you enable her alcoholism.” - Henry, emotionally intelligent savant
The biggest lesson I learned from this: as a writer never think you're smart, because that's when things fall apart
That literally sums up EVERY problem I have with the 2016 MacGyver reboot. XD
I had no idea the 2016 MacGyver reboot was a thing, so I'm assuming you're completely right.
Katy133 I'm gonna have to backhandedly support MacGyver here by saying anyone that decided to make this reboot at least once in their life was mentally screened for possible brain damage. And saw original MacGyver thought that was good and needed to redo it as more cerebral.
Hey it rhymes.
The biggest, most obvious thing to me is: COLLABORATE!
If you're a writer for a tv show or movie, then how arrogant and stupid and selfish do you have to be to not want to involve the other creative people? Hire actors who have an opinion and get them involved in the process and you'll end up with much deeper, stronger characters than if you simply write them all yourself, no matter how good of a writer you are. Your story will be populated with well-developed characters if each actor has the chance to shape who he or she is portraying.
I've long fantasized about being in the film industry so that I could work with people and tell good stories together. I can't imagine being so arrogant as to think that I didn't need help, or so dumb to think that soliciting input from the people you are working with won't result in a better story (and in actors who are more investing in their characters).
Brb gonna go write a screenplay about Tommy, the kid who grew up to play dodgeball so hard that the Olympics added the sport to their lineup. And people said he was foolish to dream. You'll show em all, Tommy.
(make it a rock opera too)
Ever since he was a young boy, he played the dodgeball
@@mechamonkeymancityboat7785 that deaf dumb and blind kid, sure played a mean dodgeball
I'd watch the shit out of that!
@@mechamonkeymancityboat7785with the critically acclaimed song "Dodgeball Wizard"
This feels like the plot of an Adam Sandler movie. Not a dis, I love Adam Sandler’s movies unironically.
What's really annoying is that the kid who plays Henry is actually a really good actor. Henry's an awful character, but he plays him to perfection.
The Henry-Edward paradox: While Robert Pattinson portrays Edward in twilight intentionally as poorly as possible and makes it worse, Jaeden Martell plays Henry as accurately as possible and ends up making it worse because of that
He really is a good actor. I haven't seen him in stuff for a while, I hope he doesn't disappear (unless it's his choice to quit acting).
This is something I think about every time I rewatch this review: The script seems to constantly forget that Henry is a child. Henry wanting to protect a random stranger from another random stranger in the supermarket isn't noble, it's a misguided recipe for getting punched in the face. Henry getting a kiss from Sheila on his deathbed isn't romantic or a subtle hint of a long-unresolved love triangle, it's a MASSIVE RED FLAG. And of course, as you point out, the plan literally doesn't work if he lives because he's a CHILD.
I think my least favorite part of the kiss from Sheila is that this is framed as a positive thing, but is also in a movie where a girl is being sexually abused by her stepfather.
Like, if we reversed the genders, this would be seen as such a horrifying thing, but because Henry is a boy the movie just brushes it off.
I know this is a year later, but maybe the Sheila kiss is supposed to be a metaphor for her being Judas? I'm not too well-versed in Christian script, but if this whole thing's a Jesus metaphor, maybe that has something to do with it?
@@garyparker9657 Sheila would have to like, actively be the reason he's dying for that to be the case, and the kiss would also need to basically serve as his death knell.
@@garyparker9657I do think it's supposed to be part of the Jesus metaphor, but I think she's supposed to represent Mary Magdalene kissing Jesus when she repents. Which is a whole different can of worms to open.
Henry-the kid "Oh, crap, this child is going to grow up into a sociopath with a backyard full of corpses."
Henry, the adult and abusive husband "Right...so...Susan's afraid to be seen in public and does everything in her power to keep Peter quiet in the attic bedroom because the stock didn't do well and...and he's now fixated on the neighbor girl..."
Adding to the "atm withdrawals" thing, I work at a bank. Rapid withdrawals of smaller, even amounts is viewed as a red flag on probably a dozen different training modules
Makes you wonder if their legal team made them change it so people wouldnt want to follow Henry's plans
@@BARMN89 Henry's plan wouldn't work. The arms dealer wouldn't just respond to someone name dropping Dominick, because that's the quickest way to get busted by an undercover cop.
He'd have pretended not to know what she was talking about, and the second she left the store Dominick's guys would follow her home and take her out.
@@trtx84 oh I thought of Dominique more as a paraphrase than an actual person. The store clerk doesn't seem coded as a "one cog in the mafia" kind of corrupt so much as a "I want an extra buck or two" kind of corrupt
I'd imaginet that goes double if they're at different ATMs. $1500 cash isn't suspicious especailly for an account that's apparently worth almost a million dollars, but $1500 at $100 intervals split between 15 ATMs is gonna raise all kinds of red flags
Here’s an issue I had- Dammit Janice doesn’t need to have “concrete proof”- all she needs to have is a suspicion. And, she HAS to report that suspicion, legally. Because she’s a goddamn mandatory reporter.
Dammit Janice!
Katie H It’s breaking my suspension of disbelief that she DIDN’T immediately get suspicious.
My kid brother is about ten years old now, and when he was even younger he played soccer on the weekends in the local park. We would get calls home if he came to school with bruises on his legs from playing soccer.
School administrators have a freaking HAIR TRIGGER when it comes to stuff like this, and justifiably so.
Not that this movie deserves the benefit of the doubt, but I bet the logic of writers was that he's the Commisioner or Chief of Police or whatever. She's probably more scared of reporting someone like that just for suspicions.
One of my favorite takeaways from the education classes I took in college is that it’s not your job as a mandatory reporter to decide if something is tangibly worth intervention, it’s your job to tell the people who make that choice. You never know what people have already been reported for in their files, what you’re witnessing might be part of an established pattern of behavior that makes it worth stepping in.
@@sweetcaroline9596 exactly! It’s just not her call to make.
*Goddamnit Janice.
I’m coming back after learning that Christina’s actress is Maddie Ziegler, aka the girl who plays the titular character in Sia’s “Music”. Damn she needs a better agent. Hope this trend of being a prop character in a misguided attempt at inspiration p*rn doesn’t become a pattern for her.
I always winced at the mother figurative relationship Sia has with her. Nowadays, I feel like us not really seeing any form of physical abuse on screen was because she wouldn’t allow any “harm” to her “treasure”…🤢
@@CNWhatImSaiyan I have a sinking feeling this is going to grow beyond some internet speculation in a decade or so and there will be some sort of revealing documentary...
@@RozWBrazel totally agree. first abby, now sia. i’m honestly worried for her
i heard she deadass got groomed by sia
also heard she feels absolutely terrible about "music," and was embarrassed even during filming
like, jesus. poor kid :(
Oh god, poor Maddie 😳! I hope she can start to forge her own path, and that she never has to do another similarly icky project again!
Dan beefing with an imaginary child over how to correctly flip people off will never not be funny
On rewatch, jeez, the author seems to have issues with women and really feels an absurd need to make sure his self insert Henry explains every women how to do her job and live her life. It's almost the most coherent theme in the movie O.o
@Charmiskit THE REDDEST OF FLAGS.
I mean at least Susan decides to go against Henry's words.
The author is a big Jordan Peterson fan so... yeah. Not surprising at all.
@@maxxvii2037 “You see, Lobsters are the best and most homicidal at age almost twelve.”
@@maxxvii2037 THAT'S WHO THE KID REMINDS ME OF!
Bad storytelling is bad, but from what you've shown this movie isn't just bad - it's repulsive. Henry is point by point the emotionally abusive husband of his mother who pictures himself as a martyr hero of sorts. That is objectively repulsive. The fact that an adult man has been working on this for almost two decades is beyond repulsive - it's terrifying.
Thanks for articulating what I was thinking halfway through this video... beyond just the flaws of the film, it is creating some sort of twisted vigilante justice narrative. Which, if in the end it was all explained through a more interesting plot and allowed Henry to preserve some innocence, would be ... maybe ok? But ultimately the characters are all unbelievably unsympathetic and it makes one wonder what the author really was trying to say with all this. A childhood revenge fantasy that is tonally messed up?
I mean, it's a shit movie for sure. imo you take it a bit far in your comment tho. That's a very uncharitable reading (not that the film deserves charitability, but still).
Yeah, age him about 10 years and suddenly all that condescending shit is NOT cute at all.
Nah, it's shite writing, but I don't think writing a garbage script is grounds to be a 'terrifying' person. I don't even think Hurwitz cared about it anymore. He put out a crap script in the 90's, everyone kinda looked at, said "yeah, that sure is a crap script" and it just sorta sat there. Then Treverrow picks it up for inscrutable Treverrow reasons, and Hurwitz has to pretend like he still cared about his old garbage script. In movie business, if you don't hype whatever project you're attached to at the time, you get labeled as poor sport, even if, after the fact, everyone agrees it was garbage. Producers do not want people who won't play ball.
Also, a lot of the issues are issues of tone or omission, aka the errors that are likeliest to come from the director or cinematographer. If Henry actually, you know, emoted, that would change *so* much of how the movie feels.
LOL, this guy just wrote a shitty script about a child's vigilante fantasy and in the end, the child was proven wrong as the mom realized it.
Sure, it's a shit story but you don't have to attack the writer's person. lmao
I just looked up and found that the screenwriter is a huge Jordan Peterson fan, and has publiclly said his teaching influenced most of his writing. He studied under him.
I wonder if this informs anything.
Jesus Metaphors, the lack of knowledge on how to handle actual serious issues, snarkiness.... I think you're onto something
A little boy knowing better than any woman (though actually he is asocial, horribly clueless and overconfident)... yep, this explains a lot.
😳
That makes a ton of sense
Holy shit.
This explains everything 🤯
Jeez. That film should be re-titled “We need to talk about Henry” and reshot as a horror where an innocent man is murdered by his genius, delusional kid neighbour and his co-dependant mother 😱
I love learning about storytelling technique from bad movies. It's like an educational autopsy.
And often more educational than seeing things done right.
I've found the exact opposite to be true in my career in the film industry. There's a hard limit to what you can learn in terms of what not to do. But there's no end to the lessons you can learn from the masters of the craft.
idk, there are A LOT of ways things can be done wrong
They all fall into the same basic categories though, once you learn those there's nowhere else to go with it. Plus, there's a mountain of content on youtube in which people crap on bad movies, that's why I focus on talking about what makes good movies good on my channel. Most youtubers tend towards talking about bad movies because it gets more views and it's easier to do. But my channel isn't monetised and I like to challenge myself.
I think a lot of the time it is easier to learn things from bad and mediocre movies than really good ones, because you often don't notice how things are done when they are done well.
I always point to Malcolm in the Middle as a good example of how to write a "smart" kid. Malcolm is a genius but he's also impulsive, rebellious, and immature.
And gets dunked on by everyone.
Something that Dan only lightly touches on that stands out to me - despite ostensibly having a revelation that listening to even an abnormally intelligent 11 year old who advocates murdering Mr Neighbour Man because it is The Only Way might be a be a bad idea, the movie ultimately validates Henry.
It all works out - immense psychological issues for all involved notwithstanding - because Glenn ends up shot in the head and Christina goes to Susan, thanks to Henry's plan anyway. If she hadn't followed the plan to the letter, then there would be no forged custody papers and no confrontation with Glenn that facilitated his death. It's having your cake and eating it, the equivalent of a female lead in rom-com realising that her self worth comes from within and she doesn't need a man, immediately followed by Mr Right and her getting together after all. This leads to me to suspect that Susan going against the plan was, in fact, a very late addition in the 18-year process of the writing of the script.
And the worst part is, it wouldn't be that hard to make it work significantly better. If Susan caught on to the myriad of the flaws in the flawless plan, that would set up her realisation that Henry was not an omnipotent demigod but a smart kid with an inflated ego a lot more naturally. The realisation falls flat because the movie is in denial that either Henry or his plan has any flaws at all. Deciding not to kill Glenn is framed as morally right, but intellectually Henry is still presented as sub textually winning, since his end goal was saving Christina via forgery before Glenn's head going boom. In the end, Christina is saved thanks to forgery, before Glenn's head goes boom.
TLDR: Susan's decision to go against the plan is hollow, because by the internal logic of the movie, the plan was fine. It's fine. It's fine. It's FIIIIINE.
12:11
There is a simple answer to this: Henry planned for all contingencies, being the child prodigy that he is, and thus even when Mom fails to shoot Glen, it's following Henry's plan.
Which is why his goal still gets accomplished.
19:45 Plywood is as thick as a human skull in the same way a piece of string is as long as a tapeworm
Thanks for pointing out the absolute raw deal Susan gets for being an actual human being reacting to her child's death. Especially in the hospital scenes, where you can clearly see she is going through textbook stages of grief while "emotionally intelligent" Henry ignores her pain.
It becomes even worse when you realize that Henry could have recorded all the financial info for his mom to deal with later, like, oh I dunno, in a notebook and maybe some tapes that he would want to make sure she got? I mean, You would think stuff like that would be super important, and therefore worth more effort than a few lectures from his hospital bed WHILE SHE IS STILL DEALING WITH HIM DYING.
I know, right? Like, lmao, she supposedly "grows up" by the end of the movie, but in the hospital she clearly has her priorities straight: deal with the grief of traumatic, terminal illness and not some stupid stocks and bonds.
If anything, Henry comes across as a cold individual, who has "some" sympathy towards his brother, but is kinda passive aggressive towards his mother - some unresolved emotional issues seems the most likely issue, but also a lack of a father figure role model for him to identify with. I'd probably say he's over-compensating "as the man of the house" trying to make sure everything is running well financially, making sure things run smoothly within the household and taking care of his brother and mom. It seems unclear if this behavior is learned or if it is his interpretation of what he "needs" to do to ensure a good life for his family?
@@sigmacademy If this is so, that makes Henry and his patronizing ass even creepier than before, ESPECIALLY if he came up with the idea on his own.
I could forgive it if it was handled somewhat differently (he's 11 and therefore unaware of others, their feelings, and what unintentional pain he might cause them to a full extent, as often kids are pretty unaware of more subtle stuff like that, and moreover unaware of what death and dying means as anything more than an abstract concept he hasn't experienced in his sphere of influence yet enough to learn to apply that to himself, but attempting to cope with it all the same and, overwhelmed by it because he's 11 and this is all happening super fast, lands right in the strategy we call 'denial', preferring to distract himself with more concrete notions like numbers and accounting), but of course that's not the case and it becomes another weird symptom in this weird movie.
Just playing devil's advocate, but maybe Henry thought if he made a series of notebooks and recordings with financial advice his mom would be unwilling or unable to read/listen to them out of a combination of grief and lack of interest in the subject.
I don't know if the director thought that far or anything though.
I'm kickstarting a reboot called "We need to talk about Henry".
I'd buy it.
The whole movie would have been so much better if Henry would have been caracterized as the typical child prodigy, who longs to do something with his skills, but can't find anything worth his time. So as a result, he imagines his neighbor being abused. For example, in the scene in which he saw his neighbor with a flashlight, and then her dad entering the room, what really happened was her just staying up past her bedtime and her dad yelling at her. Henry would proceed to spin a more and more elaborate web of possibilities, ending up obsessed with the neighbor family, until every action and non-action becomes "evidence" to Henry that he is right.
At the same time, Susan can be shown as a loving and caring mother, who feels like she can never quite help Henry live the life that she wanted for him. She can see he has no friends, and blames herself for it. She can see he can't find anything productive to do with his time, and blames herself for it. And then, when Henry dies, she inadvertently also takes the blame. When she discovers his notes about Glen being a rapist, she buys into it like a conspiracy theory, fueled by grief and a desperate wish for redeption.
She ends up following through with the plan that Henry has made, only to end up killing an innocent man. Glen, in this version, was no rapist. He was simply a father who, on occassion, had a fight with his rebellious teenage daughter. Henry, in this version, was so obsessed with showing the world what a genius he was, how he could solve the case that nobody knew even existed, that he let himself be blinded from his own brilliance. Susan was desperate for a different kind of validation; the validation that she was a good mother, that she did what she could for Henry. And through her struggle for validation, she ended up buying into the conspiracy theory of an obsessive teenager - ultimately destorying the lives of everyone involved.
I watched this shit heap with a friend of mine who is the chief detective in the homicide squad of our local pd and he told me that a murder like this would've been very easily solved in real life by even the most inept of homicide detectives because of the shockingly obvious suspicious behavior of the next door neighbor of the dead man.
@@Hammerhead547 You needed the chief detective in the homicide squad to tell you that?
This is a fantastic reimagining that is actually interesting and true to human behavior. Unfortunately, this would require the writer to have some self awareness that he simply does not have. Because he's shoehorned himself into the Henry character it would also disrupt his bizarre misogynistic Jordan Peterson inspired fantasy to show Henry in any light besides this male genius savior of all women.
And in decades of chewing on this story the writer still didn't see this laughably narrow understanding of human psychology. Just plowed ahead with his delusion, and in that way he is exactly like Henry. Just not in the way he thinks he is.
That reimagining of the Book of Henry's plot feels like the actual plot of Taxi Driver.
An entire movie about a child prodigy in the art of mansplaining
Perfect 1 liner for the entire movie.
"The movie is super judgmental about her not spending 100% of her time with her kids."
The director of this is the same guy who directed Jurassic World, right?
cheezemonkeyeater hahaha holy shit
Just realized he actually makes note of this connection in the video’s description but not the video itself.
Yeah, I wrote a big chunk, but it involved pulling in so much material from the Jurassic World script that I just moved the BoH-relevant stuff over to there instead.
Folding Ideas Which video is that? Or is it no longer up for some reason?
@@FoldingIdeas link to video?
So, between this and the weird agenda pushed on women in Jurassic World to be there for their kids 100% of the time, is it safe to say Colin doesn't have a very good view on women?
"Get away from that lucrative career and get back to the kitchen!"
He's scared of the competition from female writers... because he knows he's a hack
well, given how his treatment of Rey for the planned last *Star Wars*, read it's safe to say he doesn't SEEM to think female characters will come off as interesting, sympathetic, or believable if they aren't in want of a mayun, a babbie, or their daddie
also how dare he shoehorn Poe as the inevitable but definitely worst boyfriend
@@k.morningstar7983 lol and Finn was just standing there...
And it's even slightly worse in JW, because, like, at least here, Susan is their actual mother. It's still super shitty to not allow her to have hobbies, but, in JW, the female character isn't even their mom. She's their aunt who they're with for the day, and who seems to have gotten no forewarning about that fact, when she has a job to do.
The plan is really hilarious. I can see the case being solved within hours of finding the gun in the river, an awful place to hide a weapon. You find it, match the ballistics, and you go "Hmm, let's go ask the owner of the ONE GUN STORE IN TOWN." He has absolutely no loyalty to the random woman who twisted his arm into selling him the gun without paperwork. You know the guy was killed in his yard; you already have the neighbor in mind as a possible. He picks her out of a photo lineup. Get a warrant, search the house. They find the notebook, proves intent, deliberation, and premeditation, malice aforethought. First Degree Murder is a lock. Aggravating factor: Victim was a cop. Life in prison, no possibility of parole. Boom, done. Thank you.
Seriously. It's like one of those easy murder cases that detectives on Law and Order solve in the first 10 minutes of the episode, before finding a connection to some other crime which then becomes the REAL focus of the episode.
Like finding out that the Dominic guy related to the gun store is actually involved with a very famous, unresolved murder that happened 20 years earlier or something like that.
you don’t think Henry thought to tell her to burn the book before she tries to end Glen?
@@lithiumkid Based on the simplicity of the rest of the plan, no, I really don't think he did. Even without it, they would still have a ballistics match on the gun and verification that she bought it.
i feel like it would also be super easy to figure out the gunshot came from the playhouse they owned? like, with all of the deliberately and extremely unsubtle cut branches and twigs??
The plot of this movie would be less insultingly stupid if the complicated murder plan were to set up a murder that would be mistaken for an accident or a suicide. But instead we get a needlessly complicated plan just to establish a weak alibi for the shooter in a very obvious murder. Hell, some people might even have called this an assassination. Either way, the investigation would probably be thorough enough here that the police would bother to ask the suspected shooter "Who sat next to you during the talent show?" and break the alibi completely.
But there's no need to come up with an alibi, because the writers know that Susan's not going to shoot Glen!
EVERY CONTINGENCY.
So, if the little psychopath had survived, this could have been a prequel to "Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer"?
Nah, this is where Diane went after Mulholland Drive.
@@troyschulz2318 Dick Laurent is dead...
Wait, wrong movie.
Another thing that's worth mentioning is how little Henry and Christina interact. They share three brief conversations together and that's it, with each one consisting of "You okay?" "Yeah" and one just having Henry being "You're nice, thanks". There's no relationship apart from a one-sided "You're a victim, and I have to save you" motive. Out of all the things that they should have focused on in the story, this was easily the most important one. If I have no clue what these two characters think of each other, then why should I care about their relationship?
It's also worth mentioning that Maddie Ziegler is not a good actor, but that's probably due to her lack of characterisation and screen-time. Even if you couldn't get/didn't want to get an experienced child actor, at least have the courage to let them act.
Henry is a psychotic simp.
I find it mildly hilarious that Henry thinks apathy is the worst thing despite him being dismissive of his own mom's feelings and opinions, and anything other than what matters to him. Mom is clearly attached to the car they have, and I haven't seen anything about it being too crap to drive, but Henry doesn't care. It's an Old Car, and not a New Car, therefore they should get a New Car. Maybe the car was a gift from someone Susan cared about who is now gone like a parent, maybe it's the first car she bought herself and it's a pride thing, fuck maybe she just like some arbitrary features in the model that are kinda hard to find. Does not matter because it's an Old Car. Susan does not need to work to support the family, especially with Henry doing stocks and shit on the side,but Susan does seem to enjoy herself a bit. She's definitely not burnt out or hates it, she's doing because at least in part, she wants to. She'd rather be a picture book author, but she seems pretty happy working in the diner. Maybe she really likes her coworkers, or getting out of the house to do things for a few hours a week, maybe she just really likes the work, maybe it has inexplicably good insurance, maybe a rich relative said "okay I'll help you cover your finances so your kids don't starve but you have to have a job" and she just picked a part time thing. She has the financial stability to do a (presumably) low paying job that she likes without worrying about money, which is a dream in and of itself. Every job is someone's dream job, but a large portion of those just don't pay enough to support oneself financially, so they need to either do something else entirely or in conjunction with the low pay job. For an example of this, please cast your eyes towards teachers. None of that matters, because in Henry's brain, there is no possible reason to justify doing a job that you do not have to do. Susan having a girl's night with Sheila is bad because according to Henry Sheila has a drinking problem. Putting aside that I doubt Henry could point out actual alcoholism if it slapped him in the face due to him being fucking 11, Susan needs to spend time with other adults, ideally in more than just a work capacity. Devoting all your social time to your children is just not good for you. You and your kid will need a break from each other. And as far as video games go, we all need hobbies. Something fun to blow of steam or relax or whatever. I don't even know why Henry has a problem with this. Is it the game she's playing? Would he be fine if it was fucking Farmville? Does he even give a reason for not liking video games? But no, Susan is not allowed a job, or friends, or hobbies that are not Henry approved. She isn't allowed to make decisions on what car she drives, even though she is, ya know, the driver and had it not been for cancer, Henry wouldn't be driving it for a few years anyway. Goddamn
had brain cancer not claimed henry he would've grown up to work for The Daily Wire.
Henry was an utter hypocrite because he was written by a guy with low emotional intelligence.
Despite loathing the too-mature dialogue coming from a guy who doesnt seem to know how to write children, I don't think I hate it so much because Jaeden Martell (a game of thrones name if I've ever seen one) so convincingly plays like, a 35-year-old trapped in an 11 year old's body. To the point where I thought the twist was gonna be that Henry was actually Susan's husband reincarnated. Credit where credit is due, the actors are amazing even with the material they've been given.
I mean, the Martells _are_ the ruling dynasty of Dorne, but I can't imagine anyone in Westeros being named Jaeden.
@@timothymclean I totally can. The Targaryens love the combination of ae in names. Danaerys, Aenys, Aegon, Aemond, Daemon, and more. Jaeden feels like a pretty reasonable leap.
"it breaks basically all rules of screenwriting"
he got that right at least.
whatthe Fanfic Bear in mind, this fucker went to HARVARD.
@@theoneandonlymichaelmccormick Money can buy education but it can't buy intelligence, empathy, or taste
@@cam4636 I’m well aware. This stands as a testament to the artifice that is prestigious education institutions.
Rules exist for a reason.
The fact that he said he broke all the rules of screenwriting without an ounce of hesitation or self awareness really tells you all you need to know
"Oh Jesus they think they nailed it." - I had coffee in my mouth, I almost spit it of laughter all over my screen. Thanks for that.
Very nice work, thank you !!
Just tear out those first three chapters.
Hahaha yeah, they should have read these chapters before tearing them off.
The amazing irony is that The Royal Ocean Film Society did a whole video essay on The Book of Henry recently, and the main thing they pointed out was the film's tone being all wrong. XD
This was the most relatable line in the video.
Honestly, the whole thing about “poor” families still living in huge lovely houses is just a shitty movie thing. There are a mind boggling number of movies that feature agonizing over finances while living in beautiful two story suburban home.
I believe the reason why they use bigger houses or sets is because it makes it easier to fit the cameras
@@leadcultist2346 and that’s fine, but then don’t write a script about poverty if you can’t depict it. hell, even cramped shooting conditions could be a visual storytelling device to show how claustrophobic struggling with money can feel.
the problem isn’t filming in nice houses. the problem is filming movies about “not being able to have nice houses” in nice houses.
@@sonicthehedgegod One of the few ways I can see it working is if it's a sort of "riches to rags" story where the family lost their money and refuse to get rid of their family house, which is slowly needing more and more repairs. So "Fun with Dick and Jane" but as a drama, showcasing how easy it is for anyone to go into poverty.
@@leadcultist2346 That, and the fact that many millionaires think of themselves as middle-class. They simply have no frame of reference for what it is to be poor in even the most rudimentary of ways.
@@samniel This movie exists except it's a documentary. It's called Grey Gardens.
What amazing writing that they manage to make the kid dying of cancer be in no way sympathetic or to care for him real marvel of storytelling
I recently had major surgery and, while heavily doped up in recovery, saw this movie in the On Demand list. In my drug-addled state all I could remember was that I'd heard the name before so I watched it. Turns out I'd heard the name before from *this video*.
I am at least comforted in knowing that I wasn't hallucinating from oxycodone overdose; the movie really was that terrible.
What an underrated comment.
Watches movie while high on drugs
It's still terrible
Hope recovery went well. Not from the surgery, from the movie.
Goddamnit Janice is my favorite song from Rocky Horror.
Steven
PLANET
SCHMANET
GODDAMMIT
JANICE
I'm so glad I wasn't the only one thinking that every single time he said "God damnit Janice" I was finishing it with "I love you!" Or the less PC midnight showing version every single time.
Olsen Dan
I plan
For you too
Imagine if the film had some sort of freaky Friday backstory where Henry and Susan switched bodies a while ago and have kind of forgotten that it happened. Susan was originally an investment banker and now in Henry’s body is just an arrogant kid, and Henry (in Susan’s body) had to quit the banking job and get a less intense job cause he still has the mind of a kid (but now is interested in kids story and being a picture book author).
That’s amazing 😄
and then the implication that OG susan (now henry) is totally ok with comitting murder. [P.S. that sounds like a better premise than the one the movie has]
"I'm not a child, Henry."
"Show me."
Few exchanges are as frustrating as those two lines.
"Hey, Peter, is that your genius brother in the wood chipper there?"
xingcat THAT'S WHAT I WAS THINKING!!!!
Ironically, the kidnapping plot that terminal fuckup Jerry came up with in Fargo is ten time better thought out and ten times more likely to succeed than the plan supposed supergenius Henry comes up with.
The attempt by the granddad to act all tough and play hardball with the kidnappers was better thought-out and more likely to succeed, too. Although if Peter Stromare's character was the one who was making the pick-up...
Yeah, then granddad's "No Jean, no money!" over and over again still would have made more sense than this "supergenius'" plan.
MadCap Productions The writer probably saw Fargo and realised how he could make it better. Oscars here we come!
Also, minor thing, but the smart-sounding line “plywood is about as thick as the human skull” makes no sense. In America, plywood comes in many thicknesses, from eighth of an inch to a full inch, and greater custom. It’s a nit-pick, but you’d think that someone on set, one of the techies, would have pointed this out, or perhaps the art department when they apparently illustrated the concept of plywood-skull-thickness with what appears to be a section of manufactured flooring, not plywood.
also, isn't dansity more important? Is plywood density compared to human skull's? Does it matter when you use a sniper, a weapon developed tomake headshots from afar?
Also, the whole thing about Henry's plan to withdrawal money from different ATMs (within an hour) to get around withdrawal limits... is not a thing. ATMs don't work like that.
That depends on the type, and size, of the account. It IS possible to have no limit.
Your point about the techies speaking up about the plywood/skull thickness is actually a question of filmmaking centralization and dissemination. These crew members I'm assuming were tasked with "make us a target to shoot at" and "edit this dialogue into the scene." Yes, when you look at the full picture, it makes no sense. But really, their job is not to look at the big picture as it is to perform the tasks they were hired for. In the end, it is again an oversight on the centralized creators' part i.e. director screenwriter and producers, and this extremely perceptive observation for which you should receive some kind of award is a microcosm of the shodiness of the top level creators.
I mean seriously. This kind of shit should not be getting made nowadays
water is about as deep as a pool
The way Airplane! is based another movie by using its script nearly verbatim but cranked the madness to eleven, I think the same could be done with this movie
We could call it... The Life of Brian.
The ending line implying those are Henry's ashes is both spot on and amazing. Book of Henry would have made an amazing dark comedy with only some minor changes. A mom following her dead kid's murder plot on the mean neighbor, the kid spraying the audience with ashes... this is deeply humorous
Things wrong with the 'genius' plan:
- The gun is going to make plenty of noise. Yes, even with a suppressor. Police ask around, "Hey, did you notice anything weird last night when the commissioner was shot?" "Yeah, there was a weird lady whistling noise in the woods somewhere, then a sound like muffled fireworks, then a thud sound and some splashing."
- It is not likely to be hard for the police to discover that the lady who had oddly extracted money from a bunch of different ATMs in a short span of time bought a sniper rifle. Presumably Dominic is either an organized crime figure or an informant, for example, and that's an obvious likely source for information to leak out. Even aside from that, alibi with regards the pageant or not, someone is probably going to have seen her buy the gun & someone could probably identify her new car heading away from the pageant (people do notice when you get a new car).
- The motive for the killing is incredibly obvious and connecting the murder with the forged custody papers would be incredibly trivial. I mean, how quickly do you think a cold blooded prosecutor would be able to get a confession from the sexually abused young girl about Glen's abuse during an interrogation? "Oh... and Glen was just going to sign away custody of his sex toy? HM. THIS IS NOT SUSPICIOUS."
- All of the idiotic 'prep' work done in the woods would almost certainly be a forensic team's fever dream. "Oh wow! She left us all this great, clear evidence of tampering & hilariously failing to cover-up a crime. Look at how brazenly pre-meditated this all must have been. Look at all her fingerprints & shoe prints & marks we can easily trace to her garden tools all over everything! This is amazing!"
- Even if Henry had not somehow mistaken his backyard creek for a rushing river, and the body was truly going to fall into white rapid and vanish... people tend to notice that someone has disappeared. "Oh Glen disappeared, and then 'he' signed off his custody coincidentally to his sexually abused daughter that we all kinda know he abused, then his body was later discovered down river. Gee whiz how incredibly not suspicious at all, we definitely aren't going to investigate this obvious link to his disappearance."
I'm not much of one for trying to 'fix' this kind of thing, but... why bother with any sort of Rube Goldberg plan here? If Henry is going to die anyway and he feels radical action must be taken and he considers himself a martyr figure... who not directly confront Glen in a straight-up shoot out? Glen dies, Christina goes into new custody, Henry dies for a noble (?) cause, film can deal with family attempting to adopt Christina or something. I dunno. If nothing else, at least that would be an interesting subversion of a traditional American blaze of glory trope.
Would also kind of be hilarious.
good write
I just can’t get over how stupid this plan is! The first thing the police would do when they find a body of a man killed with an unusual bullet is interview all the local gun stores. No way is an anonymous gun store employee going to cover for Susan, no matter how many code words she uses.
Also, the talent show is supposed to be her alibi.. but she leaves the show! Someone would’ve noticed she was missing for twenty minutes. Usually when a movie character needs to establish an alibi, they’ll pretend they’re in a closed room that no one sees them leave, or they build a dummy à la Ferris Bueller. But no, she just leaves, in full view of several dozen witnesses.
At the very least, one of the dozens of cameras along her route home would’ve seen her speeding through traffic.
Not to mention that the entire plan hinges on the idea of social anonymity, and the suburbs of a small town is not a great place for that. In a big city with hundreds of thousands of faces, people might not be able to pick you out of a crowd, but here the other parents at the school and the neighbors probably know who Susan is, so if anyone saw her leaving the talent show or driving around during that time, they would easily be able to identify her and crack her alibi. Plus, Dominic and the gun store owner probably know who actually works for Dominic, and the cute blonde who works at the diner seems like someone the cashier would easily be able to recognize as an outsider.
I also don't see how having a new car would help her alibi. Her beat up car is a lot more familiar and conspicuous, which would make it the *better* car to use for establishing an alibi. It'd be one thing if she'd never brought the new car home and kept it in the school parking lot just to use for the race back to kill Glen, because then everyone in town would have seen her conspicuous old car leave her house and *remain* in the school parking lot. But even that's sketchy because then the new car being at her house would be suspicious and someone might notice it. Also, I'm pretty sure most new cars have computers and GPS and things that like log your recent trips? All it would take is a cop being like "cool, let's just verify your alibi and check your car logs" or whatever to see that she was very much driving around during the talent show.
32:48 This was so bizarre to me, that the administrator doesn't consider visible bruises cause enough to at minimum /investigate/ the situation. I played rugby in high school and came to school with visible bruises and almost every time some administrator stopped me in the hallway and asked if I needed to talk to anyone. I had a friend who played field hockey who was brought into the principal's office because of the bruises on her legs that they suspected were from getting beaten by a parent/guardian. The idea that a school admin wouldn't take bruises as seriously as they did in my high school is ludicrous, it's one of the most obvious red flags!
Midnight Screening pointed this out in their review of the movie, but this also bring up the question of... what if Henry was wrong about Christina? She does ballet, so what if she got bruises from dancing and Henry just jumped to conclusions? Because we, the audience, never see Glen outright do anything to her (she just looks upset while turning a flashlight on and off in her room) and Christina herself says she's okay (though granted, she seems upset about something). Midnight Screenings genuinely thought "Henry being wrong" was going to be a plot twist at the end of the movie!
When I was in the theatre I totally considered it as a possible outcome, too. Since the movie shows so little substantive evidence it wouldn't have been a far reach to say that Henry misread the situation.
Honestly if that had been the case, and Susan then figured that out before it was too late, the movie would be vastly superior, since that actually tells a, you know, story.
Yes, it wouldn't have solved everything, but at least it would have Susan accepting that her son wasn't Jesus or omnipotent. It's so problematic to turn the genius kid into this infallible creature who isn't even afraid of dying from brain cancer (and it's a nice clean cancer too-- he doesn't whither up or lose himself as it eats away at him).
wow, you went to a nice school
Not to mention that due to her profession, Principal Goddamnit Janice is most likely a mandated reporter. Meaning she is required by law to report ANY suspicion of child abuse.
Meanwhile from Glen's perspective it's a story about him trying to connect to his daughter because she's depressed both her biological parents died in two unrelated events before she'd even become a teenager. Then when he finds out everyone views him as such a bad parent they assume he's abusing the daughter he can't connect with because she's naturally depressed, he shoots himself in the face.
The fact that this movie was originally a Black Comedy before Trevorrow’s ego raised its ugly head makes your idea that much more believable
i almost respect this movie more for being a shitshow because it accidentally puts the lie to so many awful tropes by earnestly using them sans the usual cheap 'n' easy fix.
They *could have* shown concrete evidence of actual abuse, but the lack thereof just highlights how horny the script is for murder.
They *could have* justified Henry's dickish behavior, but instead he becomes to Precocious Child Genius characters what Dewey Cox is to musical biopic subjects.
They *could have* given Susan truly troublesome character flaws, but then we wouldn't get to see how deeply and eagerly the screenwriter nitpicks a totally benign female character.
**They could have just location scouted a bigger river** but the creek invites you to lay waste to Henry's plan by actually thinking about it for a goddamn second.