EXCLUSIVE: Director Colin Trevorrow Addresses Negative ‘Book of Henry’ Reviews

Chris Tilly
Movies
Movies

The Book of Henry is in cinemas worldwide right now, and it’s fair to say that the film has taken a battering from the critics, with a Rotten Tomatoes score of just 23%.

The film tells the tale of a mother trying to rescue an abused girl with the help of a book written by her genius, and its mix of genres and abrupt tonal shifts seemed to genuinely annoy some film journalists, with Trevorrow bearing the brunt of their criticism.

We therefore asked the director how the negative reception has affected him…

“Professionally all I can hope is that people will go see the movie and judge the movie for themselves” came the response. “I think personally of course it’s something I put a tremendous amount of my heart and my soul into as did everybody who made the film.

“It’s something that I hope would be able to reach people who write about films for a living in the same way that it reaches audiences. I know the way it affects audiences and the way it connects with them and so that is hugely satisfying to me. Obviously I wish that I could have it all, but what can you do?”

We then asked Trevorrow if he feels like he’s under extra scrutiny having made global smash Jurassic World before The Book of Henry, and then moving onto Star Wars: Episode IX after.

“I think that making a film like this, that is a risky film – from a place of tone, from a place of character, from a place of narrative – I think that putting that in the context of the other films that I make may not necessarily be helpful to it, and so I apologise to this film if in any way I have tainted the way people look at it because of everything else that I am associated with.

“I think that it’s very much part of my personality and the way that I was raised in that I was raised in a very creative family – my mother was a photographer, my father was in a country rock band, and they both encouraged me to be not just a creative person, but to face my fears and to challenge myself and look over into the abyss of what scares me most and then jump. I did that here and so for better or worse I can’t apologise for wanting to do something different and new. I feel like the audience demands it.”

The Book of Henry is in cinemas now.

Chris Tilly
Freelance writer. At this point my life is a combination of 1980s horror movies, Crystal Palace football matches, and episodes of I'm Alan Partridge. The first series. When he was in the travel tavern. Not the one after.