The Book of Henry

First Hit: The story and acting was wonderful and deeply touching.

Susan Carpenter (Naomi Watts) is a single mother of two boys Henry (Jaden Lieberher) and Peter (Jacob Tremblay). Susan is a waitress at a small café and her co-worker and best friend is Shelia (Sarah Silverman). Together they are tackling life as it comes to them with an occasional glass of wine.

Early on we learn that Henry is an extraordinary boy. Smart, way beyond his years, he’s about things being fair. When his brother gets picked on by a bully at school, Henry is there. When he figures out that his neighbor and classmate Christina (Maddie Ziegler) is being sexually abused by her step-father Glenn Sickleman (Dean Norris) who happens to be the Police Commissioner in their town, he wants to do something about it.

Henry calls help lines and speaks to the school principal but she says that there isn’t anything to do because of Glenn’s connections and that Glenn is looked up to in the community. Henry is focused and incensed that nobody is helping his sweet neighbor.

Henry is the adult in this family and shows this because he's invested their money wisely and his mom has a growing nest egg. Also, while in a grocery store one day, the family sees a man mistreating a young woman and Henry wants to help her out, but Susan tells him it isn’t their business. He protests by saying apathy is the enemy of society.

Although Henry is a genius, he suffers from headaches and one day falls into a seizure. In the hospital, they learn he’s got a brain tumor and will soon die. He makes Peter promise to give their mom a red book and instructs his mom to quit her job, pay attention to their stocks and she and Peter will be financially okay.

The book contains detailed step by step instructions on how to save Christina from her step-father. At first Susan is reluctant, but after she witnesses Christina’s plight one night while looking out the window, she commits to making a difference.

I liked how this film developed the characters. It gave them each a way to express and represent their part in this touching story.

Watts was amazing as the mother of these two boys. Her ability to be smart, dependent and trusting was amazing. Lieberher was fantastic as Henry. He embodied the role of brilliance and his thoughtfulness even while passing on early in life. I was transfixed watching him. Tremblay was outstanding as the younger brother. Although not with Henry’s brilliance, he was extremely smart in a tenacious way. He was amazingly loveable. Silverman was perfect as the off the wall friend whose has a heart of gold. Ziegler was very good as the girl next door who had a horrible secret she was keeping. Norris was very strong in the unenviable role as the step-father. Gregg Hurwitz wrote a strong and insightful screenplay. Colin Trevorrow did a masterful job of creating a wonderful film to watch.

Overall:  This is a well thought out sensitive film.

My Cousin Rachel

First Hit: Although the story was telegraphed from the beginning, it almost worked.

Ambrose Ashley (not credited) owns a large estate on the Cornish coast of England. He’s kind hearted and is guardian to an orphan boy who is his cousin Philip (as an adult Sam Claflin). Because Ambrose is sickly, he goes to Italy to heal in the sunshine.

There Ambrose meets Rachel (Rachel Weisz) who he falls in love with and marries. We know this through the letters he sends some to Philip. Then the letters get fewer and far between but each letter that comes through tells a tale of Ambrose thinking Rachel is poisoning him.

After Ambrose’s death, Philip swears he will kill Rachel if he ever see’s her. Because Ambrose never signed a new will, Philip inherits the estate but will not have sole control until he’s 25. Prior to his 25th birthday Rachel shows up to his home. Instead of disliking her, Philip finds Rachel appropriately humble and thoughtful.

It is obvious that she is not really being kind for the sake of kindness but because she has a plan. This is the failing of the film. There are too many obvious hints that Rachel is at Philip’s estate to make money. There is nothing really hidden. I don’t know if it was the script or acting but I didn’t buy the premise and therefore the ending seemed obvious.

Weisz was strong, beautiful and seductive; however, I think the script had too many breadcrumbs to make it mysterious. Claflin was OK as Philip. He was naïve enough, but again I think the script was overtly obvious and therefore, knowing the story before it unfolds in not a good trait for a film. Iain Glen was strong as Nick Kendall, the role of Philip’s Godfather. I liked the way he carried the aristocracy of his position. Holliday Grainger as Louise Kendall was the best of the lot. Her desire for Philip was perfectly subdued and obvious. Roger Michell wrote and directed this film. It was a mediocre attempt to create suspense and mystery.

Overall: Despite being a good idea, it didn’t quite make it.

I, Daniel Blake

First Hit: Excellent acting shares a heartwarming and heartbreaking story. The intense realism Dave Johns and Hayley Squires (Daniel and Katie) bring to their respective parts was amazing. Daniel is a 59-year-old British carpenter who has worked with his hands all his life, suffers a heart attack and his physician indicates he cannot go back to work until his heart gets stronger.

He gets a phone call from the employment department in Newcastle, England, they go through a round of idiotic questions to determine whether he’s qualified to receive unemployment benefits. The questions could pertain to someone who didn’t suffer a heart attack and who might be scamming the system, but they are laughable to Daniel. He does answer them the best he can.

At one point, he asks if the person on the other end of the phone line; are they a qualified medical person who can make a correct decision? They are not and everyone knows this, but they are just doing their job. He’s told that a “Decision Maker” will decide if he’s qualified to continue to receive benefits.

After we see him visit his heart doctor and she tells him he cannot go back to work he receives a rejection notice for his benefits. He decides to go to the Employment Benefit office in person to complete a request for a reassessment. Entering the office, it is typical government agency type of office whereas the workers only do what they are told and what the procedures dictate.

Here is where we meet Katie. She is a  single mother in her twenties with two small children and is late to her appointment because she has just moved to Newcastle from London after being evicted from her London flat. Newcastle was only place where she had been able to find living accommodations.  She is late to her appointment for government assistance because she had taken the incorrect bus. The desk person she’s supposed to meet with tells her she cannot meet because she is late and therefore will not get her benefits.

Katie throws a small tantrum and Daniel tries to intercede to help Katie with the supervisor and security people at the agency. Alas, he gets thrown out of the office as well.

Daniel returns on another day and is told he must fill out the forms online. He doesn’t have a computer nor does he know how to use one. In one scene, when a librarian attempts to help him, she says "move the mouse up the screen", he takes the mouse in his hand and puts it on the screen and rolls it towards the top of the computer.

The frustration Daniel and Katie have with the agency grows and Katie turns to theft and prostitution to keep her children alive. Daniel loses everything, furniture and other personal stuff, just to stay alive while they fight the bureaucracy. Daniel finally gets fed up and gets arrested for putting graffiti on the Employment Offices outside wall.

When his solicitor (lawyer) discovers Daniel’s predicament, he gets a hearing and is assured of a win for his employment benefit case, but then tragedy strikes.

The realism of the bureaucratic offices, the story line, the confusion, and the helplessness as shown in this film were wonderful, although it was difficult to watch how easily the haves dismiss the have nots.

Johns was fantastic. I loved how he did what he could, in deference to his own life, to make Katie’s life easier. He was amazingly perfect for the part. Squires was equally fantastic. When she was in the food bank picking up food, her struggle to stay alive broke my heart. Watching her do her best to shield her children from their predicament was amazingly pure. Briana Shann as Daisy, Katie’s daughter was fantastic. I loved when she came to the Daniel’s door to draw him out. Dylan McKiernan as Dylan, Katie’s hyper active son was sublime. With the attention, Daniel paid to him, he found a way to focus. Kate Rutter, as Employment Office worker Ann, was very strong as someone who wanted to help and was hindered by her supervisor and job procedures. Paul Laverty wrote an outstandingly realistic screenplay. Ken Loach got everything and more from this screenplay and actors.

Overall:  All bureaucratic workers would do well to see how they are sometimes seen.

Wakefield

First Hit: Very enjoyable along with being witty, funny and introspective.

Have you ever wanted to just checkout, or get out of the rat race? This story is about how we fall into traps of our day to day life and how one man decided to checkout.

A key moment in the film is when Howard (Bryan Cranston) recalls his wife Diana (Jennifer Garner) telling him “I’m just hoping to make it through the day”. We know the couple is struggling because they each are getting through the marriage with difficulty.

He works in the city and is a highly-paid litigator, she works at a museum as assistant curator. At home he watches her closely and at parties and other gatherings he accuses her of flirting with other men, whereby he gets jealous and for him, and maybe her, this is when he gets aroused enough to have sex.

On his way home one evening, feeling the pressure and unhappiness of his life, the train breaks down because of a power shortage. His wife keeps calling him and he doesn’t answer the phone, he's feeling pressure. He is on the edge of a breakdown. Finally arriving at home, instead of going in the house, he chases down a raccoon and finds himself in a room above the garage. Looking out of the ornamental window, he decides he cannot face his wife and decides to sleep in a chair in the room. Next day, after his wife leaves, he washes up but then gets this crazy idea to sneak out and go back to the attic. But before he does he puts everything back just as if he wasn’t there.

Being able to spy on his wife and kids from the windows in this room, he decides to stay a couple days, then they turn into weeks, which in-turn turn into months. He becomes a homeless person but with a sheltered place to sleep.

He goes out at night and the early morning to collect food from trash cans and wash off in a local lake. As he becomes more engaged with his new life, above the garage, the conversations he has with himself are amazingly poignant about life, each of us and his character. Truly this was a great aspect of this film. The evolutionary aspect of this character as he sees life through the pane of his upstairs hideaway.

I loved the way this was filmed. It made Howard an everyman and how easily things can change and what one can do to find their path to where they want to be.

Cranston was magnificent. He fully engaged with and in this role. His sarcasm, insights and love towards his wife were fully explored. Garner was fantastic. Although having little speaking scenes, watching her be Howard's wife, as seen through his eyes through the small windows, was fascinating. Robin Swicord did an amazing job creating an engaging and fascinating script and expertly directed the actors based on this screenplay.

Overall:  One of the better films to show up on the big screen this year.

Their Finest

First Hit:  A very sweet and thoughtful film about making a propaganda film in World War II England.

The story takes place in London during war time and between the German buzz bombing. Catrin Cole (Gemma Arterton) interviews for, what she thinks is, a secretarial position at the Ministry of Information only to discover she gets the job as scriptwriter for propaganda films. She needs to money as she is supporting herself and her, almost, husband Ellis Cole (Jack Huston) who is an artist and was injured in Spanish Civil War. She's not officially married to Ellis but wears a wedding ring and takes his name.

The British propaganda films, designed to motivate the population to work hard for the war effort, are not being well received. Fellow writer Tom Buckley (Sam Claflin) is hard on Catrin because she’s a woman and screenwriting is a man’s world.

However, he sends her on an assignment based on a newspaper article where twin women stole their father’s boat to go to Dunkirk to help save the lives of men. When Catrin interviews the women, she discovers that the boat stopped off shore. Never getting to Dunkirk, they did get wounded home because some of the boats that came from Dunkirk were overloaded and those boats gave them wounded personnel to take home.

The written article makes it more than what they did, but Catrin, Tom and the film making team make a variation of the adventure. The film uses an older famous actor Ambrose Hilliard (Bill Nighy) as part of the characters and as the only strong actor, he has ideas of how the plot and his part needs to go.

However, he begins to trust Catrin’s writing as she knows what she’s doing and when writing in concert with Tom, they excel.

What was interesting was this film also showed how important women were and their strength in helping the country defeat Germany. It also showed how people had to scale back their lives to support the war effort. I genuinely enjoyed watching Catrin watch the film she wrote and how the audience around her were engaged with the story. This was touching.

Arterton was fantastic in this role. Her reserved, yet expressive ways through the film created a wonderful character. Huston was good as the injured artist. Buckley was strong as Catrin’s fellow writer. His disbelief in women being able to write subtlety changing as the film enfolds was wonderful. Nighy was superb as the aristocratic and self-obsessed actor who comes to appreciate what he has. Gaby Chiappe wrote a wonderful screenplay, which unfolded with greater strength as the film went on. Lone Scherfig did a great job of directing this story and keeping the feel of the time and how films were constructed in the 1940’s just right.

Overall:  I was surprised by how much I liked and felt this film as it moved along.