History Film / TheBookOfHenry

* LostAseop: The movie seems like it's trying to set up a message about apathy but thanks to various factors listed above in BrokenAseop the film loses it's message.

** Susan's arc centers on herself realizing that Henry, for all his intelligence, is still just a child... except that Henry is portrayed as so absurdly hypercompetent and seemingly justified in all his legal and financial advice that his age is basically no factor.

* ShaggyDogStory: [[spoiler: Since Susan ends up not killing Glen and the Principal ends up reporting Glen's abuse causing him to commit suicide it ultimately means all of Henry's planning was completly pointless in the end.]]

* DeconstructedCharacterArchetype: Henry deconstructs the ChildGenius by being insufferable, thinking what whatever solutions he can think of are the only solutions available, that said solutions are perfect, and ultimately still sticking to a childish vision of the world -- one where MurderIsTheBestSolution is actually applicable. [[spoiler:Even if everything else comes out A-OK thanks to Glenn killing himself, had she followed Henry's plan to the letter and it had actually worked, Susan still would have had Glenn's death on her hands and there's no telling how well she would have been able to cope.]]

* ScrewTheRulesIHaveConnections: Glenn looks like a regular (if abusive) man and thus Henry tries to use the regular channels when dealing with the abuse (or worse) problem... and then it turns out that Glenn's brother is the man in charge of the town's Social Services department and Glenn is the Chief of Police.

%%* {{Hypocrite}}:

%%* InsufferableGenius:
%%* {{Jerkass}}:

* FlatCharacter: Christina. While her lack of emotion can be excused by her depression brought on by her abuse, she never displays any other traits or agency of her own outside of being mistreated and unhappy.

''The Book of Henry'' is a 2017 film directed by Colin Trevorrow.

* BlondeBrunetteRedhead: The Carpenters. Susan (blonde), Henry (brunet) and Peter (redhead).

** Glenn always commits his abuse of Christina in the same room, with the window open, while Henry or Christina are awake to see him do it, while never noticing them.

* BrokenAesop: Susan's arc centers on herself realizing that Henry, for all his intelligence, is still just a child... except that Henry is portrayed as so absurdly hypercompetent and seemingly justified in all his legal and financial advice that his age is basically no factor.

* AdultsAreUseless: The school principal refuses to take Henry's word against Christina's abuse, and Henry ends up explaining his own diagnosis to his stunned doctor. That's not to mention his mother being several levels of incompetent. But the film eventually subverts this when [[spoiler: the principal realises her mistake, and Susan also successfully challenges Glenn]].

** Susan calls her boys 'Enchilada 1 & 2' [[spoiler: and Christina 'butterfly' by the end]].

* DecoyProtagonist: [[spoiler: Henry actually dies halfway through the film, leading to Susan becoming the real protagonist]].

* ImpliedLoveInterest: Dr Daniels is implied to have some kind of connection to Susan, and the movie ends with a MaybeEverAfter between them.

* WiseBeyondTheirYears: Henry to an almost exaggerated extent - who is so good at math that he takes care of the bills, and has even played the stock markets so that his mother is basically set for life. The movie then however moves into {{Deconstruction}} territory [[spoiler: showing that despite all his intelligence and competence, Henry still has the mind of a child and his solution to kill Glenn was hardly a sensible one]].

Henry Carpenter (Jaeden Lieberher) is an eleven year-old [[ChildProdigy boy genius]], living with and managing the finances of his mother Susan (Creator/NaomiWatts) and his younger brother Peter (Jason Tremblay). Becoming suspicious of the next door neighbor Glenn (Creator/DeanNorris), Henry discovers that his classmate Christina (Maddie Ziegler) is being abused by her stepfather. Impeded at every legal avenue, Henry hatches a plan to rescue Christina and punish his neighbor, but circumstances emerge to result in his inexperienced mother having to carry out the plot.

* {{Flatline}}: While at the hospital, Henry pulls off his heart rate so he can leave his bed and see out the window, causing a nurse to run over in a panic. [[spoiler:Strangely, this didn't happen at all when it's revealed that Henry snuck out the night before to record the tapes for his mom.]]