Ben Oliver

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film

The Book of Henry

Don’t worry mom… I’m with you every step of the way.
11 December 2017

Spoilers ahead

I’m just going to let the plot of the film speak for itself.

So there’s this 11 year-old kid who is super smart. So smart that he trades stocks and shares on a pay phone during his lunch break at school. So smart he can read an MRI scan and knows about stages of cancer. So smart that Sarah Silverman wants to fuck him and even kisses him on the lips.

Anyway it’s just as well he knows about MRI scans because he’s got a brain tumour and he’s about to die. It’s ok though he has already put a contingency plan in place for after his death.

He suspects that his next door neighbour is beating his step-daughter, so his dying wish is that his mother goes to a gun store, illegally obtains a sniper rifle and uses it to murder the neighbour. He even buys her a super quick getaway car, which turns out to be a Volvo estate.

He leaves his mother instructions on a cassette tape for how to carry this out, and she follows them step by step. She goes to ATMs undetected, uses the money to by a gun off the record, trains herself up, goes to a cabin in the woods etc etc… but right at the very last minute when she has him in her sights she realises she probably shouldn’t pull the trigger.

It’s ok though because he kills himself five minutes later anyway.

One of the weirdest and most confused films I’ve ever seen. I am at a loss for words. Worth a watch if only because you truly have to see it to believe it.