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.

The Mummy

First Hit:  Starts off okay, but falls off quickly into a waste of film and time.

Tom Cruise (here as Nick Morton) gives his all in everything he does. In some films like Risky Business, Top Gun, and A Few Good Men, it is more than enough and strong but you still know it is Tom Cruise.

The difference between those films and this one is they had good and believable stories. This story fails early on. The idea that Ahmanet (Sofia Boutella), an Egyptian princess, decided to embrace the dark side and be all powerful when her legacy is taken away from her because of the birth of a male child, was rather thin. Then to make the story interesting, because of her new-found power, she was killed and was buried in Mesopotamia. The fear of her power required that she be interned in a tomb filled with mercury to keep her powers deplete. This made the reach too far to be believable. In fact the finders of the tomb said it was far fetched that there was an Egyptian tomb in Mesopotamia.

The story has Nick and his side-kick Chris Vail (Jake Johnson) being artifact hunters who illegally sell what they find. Nick steals a map of an artifact site from Jenny Halsey (Annabelle Wallis) and accidently finds the sarcophagus with Ahmanet.

Until this point the film is tolerable. But after the plane, which is transporting the tomb to London, falls out of the sky and Nick survives without a scratch, the film really reaches into the bag of unbelievability.  And it's at this point we get that Nick is part of Ahmanet’s plan to destroy the world.

The visuals are good and there was no expense spared in making the visuals work, however, for me Ahmanet’s costume failed. She’s supposed to be wrapped in mummy cloth strips, but the outline of her underwear was too obvious. Additionally, I don’t think any of the body markings on her face or body added anything to her role.

Cruise, as I’ve said in other film reviews with Tom Cruise as the star, is simply Tom Cruise in a role. He never embodies a character and becomes the character, he is Tom Cruise as a character. Boutella was okay. I didn’t think the double eye irises added anything of interest. Of course, with four irises, I don’t know how she could see. Johnson was okay as the side kick, but as a zombie, it didn’t work. Wallis was the best part of the film. She came across as smart and in control of her role. David Koepp and Christopher McQuarrie wrote a far-fetched screenplay. Alex Kurtzman did an okay job of directing the actors. That the story was mediocre and that Cruise will go all out making sure we know it is Tom Cruise acting a role, made his job harder.

Overall: Another waste of time watching an expensive blockbuster.

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.

Wonder Woman

First Hit: I was put off at the beginning and the movie didn’t get much better from there. Unfortunately, this spring there has been a lack of quality and interesting films. This film is another one of those failed films that attempted to make a point of some sort and fails to deliver. What I thought the points that this film wanted to make were: Women are powerful and that love is the only way we can all live in peace. To do this the movie spends its time in titanic wars between entities that are not real.

On the first point, yes it shows a woman as a physically strong woman, but I think Hidden Figures and Zero Dark Thirty model stronger women with mental fortitude in more realistic settings. On the second point, our history from WWI is self explanatory.

The odd thing about this film and an obvious failure, is that after Wonder Woman/Diana Prince (Gal Gadot) defeats Ares/Sir Patrick Morgan (David Thewlis) in a battle during WW I, which is suppose to bring peace to the world but doesn't because a few years later the world experiences WW II. So the point or mission of Wonder Woman to kill the God of Death, Ares, doesn't really do anything.

The early background scenes of the hidden island of Themyscira, which is home to the Amazon race and Diana Prince, were horrible. The waterfalls were obviously not real and against the live background really looked fake. Additionally the dialogue between Hippolyta (Connie Nelson) and Antiope (Robin Wright) was stilted and seemed forced. The other item that struck me as amateurish was the beginning voice overs telling us the story so that we would buy into the premise. I didn’t.

Although everyone who doesn't live on the hidden island is skeptical of a God of Death and War, Ares, Wonder Woman knows he exists and leaves the island to kill him and make the world safe for all. When a young spy accidentally travels through the hidden island’s cloak (not a very good cloak) she follows him back out of the cloaked island ready to find and kill Ares.

There are numerous scenes where Wonder Woman is an anomaly to this WWI story and that’s part of the point. However, the film does not do this well and therefore I ended up wondering if this was a poor action film or a very poor tongue-in-cheek comedy.

The fight scenes were attempting to be grand gestures, however it just seemed too fake. Wonder Woman rarely got dirty and the long slow buildup to the supreme war between her and Ares just wasn’t very good. It lacked excitement and well-designed choreography.

Gadot was okay as Wonder Woman, but the storyline and direction let her down. I think there is more to her than she was able to give us here. Thewlis was mediocre as Ares. Didn’t think the casting was right for this. Chris Pine as the spy Captain Steve Trevor was appropriately amusing if this film were more aimed to be a tongue-in-cheek comedy. There are a host of other people playing parts but I don’t think it is appropriate to review their performances. I disliked Allan Heinberg’s screenplay as I thought it was lost and without a clear genre. Patty Jenkins seemed as lost as the screenplay and if the point of this film was to make an impact, it failed.

Overall: Cannot recommend anyone sitting through over 140 minutes of this celluloid.

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.