The Book of Henry (2017)

We quite liked this story of a gifted 11 year old who takes care of his artist/waitress mother and 8 year old brother and then takes on a neighbor girl who's being abused by her stepfather. Though the movie swings between light and dark, comedy and tragedy, Jack and I thought it successful, but apparently some critics disagree (more on that in a moment).

Jaeden Lieberher (last blogged for St. Vincent and was also moving as troubled Johnny Masters in 11 episodes of Masters of Sex) is now 14 and is masterful at conveying Henry's on-the-spectrum skills in  accounting, engineering, psychology, medicine, the stock market, you name it. We expect nothing less from, and are rewarded by, Jacob Tremblay, now 10, who won many awards for Room and gives a rich performance as little Peter. Naomi Watts (most recently in 3 Generations and also had a funny bit in St. Vincent) is wonderful as their devoted and slightly ditzy mother Susan. Maddie Ziegler (in her feature debut) is also now 14 and, as the neighbor Christine, displays her dancing chops in a well-edited third act sequence that reminds me of a favorite movie from the 1980s (write me if you want to know--it's a spoiler). Supporting strength comes from Dean Norris (last blogged for Men, Women & Children but is best known as brother-in-law Hank in 62 episodes of Breaking Bad) as the stepfather; Sarah Silverman (after I wrote about her in A Million Ways to Die in the West she was in seven episodes of Masters of Sex and has a hilarious new standup special on Netflix right now) as Susan's BFF Sheila; and Lee Pace (after A Single Man he was in, among others, Lincoln, the first Guardians of the Galaxy, and 40 episodes of Halt and Catch Fire) as a handsome (duh) doctor.

Director Colin Trevorrow (most recently in these pages for Jurassic World) works from an original script by novelist Gregg Hurwitz in his feature screenwriting debut. The imdb trivia tells me that the screenplay is twenty years old and was shot in 36 days. They had good weather those five weeks for the magnificent outdoor shots of upstate New York (fictitious town Cavalry), shot in Nyack, Croton-on-Hudson, and Manhattan by cinematographer John Schwartzman, who did the honors on Jurassic World as well.

Composer Michael Giacchino's (last blogged for Zootopia) lovely score can be streamed from this youtube playlist. The opening credits also tell us that Stevie Nicks performs a song (over the end credits)--the same song that Susan sings to her boys in an early scene. The video of the Nicks song will have spoilers for those paying close attention so you may want to wait to watch it until you've seen the movie. Included in that video are drawings from the titular book that ran during the opening credits; credits that I wish I could watch again but haven't been able to summon from the world wide web.

I've read a few of the scathing reviews and they really hate the roller coasters of emotions, explaining the 23% reviewers' average on Rotten Tomatoes. But audiences are at 70 and we'd give it an 80 or so. Let me know what you think.