A Monster Calls (2016) Review!!!

Synopsis – A boy seeks the help of a tree monster to cope with his single mom’s terminal illness.

My Take – This is certainly a year for fantastic monsters and fantasy, isn’t it? And also the third film this year dealing with a child dealing with a monster, after The BFG and Pete’s Dragon, however this one is definitely not your typical fantasy and is probably the one (among the three) that will leave a bigger impact. As a fan of director J.A. Bayona‘s previous work The Impossible & The Orphanage, I had certain expectations from the film, and I am glad I wasn’t disappointed. Watching this film, you are certain to laugh and cry your way through its run time, with the central theme being touching, heartbreaking & powerful. Based upon the novel, by the same name, written by Patrick Ness and illustrated by Jim Kay and conceptualized Siobhan Dowd, Bayona‘s adaptation of the novel plays out to be a deep, rich, story that will touch the hearts and minds of each and everyone in the audience. For anyone going through the stages of grief, this film will especially ring true and perhaps bring about comfort. What confused me was that the film deals with deep emotions, dark themes, and material usually better suited for adults. Why then choose such a young protagonist? Perhaps the author Patrick Ness wanted to reach those kids who are going through tough times and who are dealing with situation that most kids won’t face until they are much older, while some kids are just forced to grow up more quickly than other. It’s important that cinema and literature not forget them because words on pages or moving pictures may be the only source of comfort, escape, or allegory. Director J.A. Bayona appears to have successfully translated the novel to screen, from what I know.

The story follows a preteen boy named Conor O’Malley (Lewis MacDougall), who spends most of his time listening to coughing fits of his sick mother (Felicity Jones), Bullied at school and alienated from both his absentee father (Toby Kebbell) and strict grandmother (Sigourney Weaver), Conor begins to transform emotionally mainly as he doesn’t want to be another problem for her, so he channels his pain into elaborate sketches of the nearby graveyard, with its stone chapel and a sprawling yew tree that haunts his nightmares. However, one day at 12:07 am, a low grumble comes from the graveyard opposite Connor’s house. Branches creak and vines stretch until the yew tree is a towering, tromping, terrifying beast (Liam Neeson) with strong legs, long arms, trailing tendrils, and a hungry fire burning within its hollow eyes and gaping maw. Smashing into the humble O’Malley home, the monster rips Conor out of his room to promises him three visits, each with the telling of a true tale. In return, Conor will have to share his own truth or else he’ll suffer through his worst nightmare, one he is not ready to face. What seems like a midnight menace quickly evolves into Conor’s coping method as the world he knows crumbles around him and his mother’s condition grows grave, his visits with the monster become Conor’s sanctuary for screaming and railing against infuriating realities. Those stories not only give the film a simple structure, they’re told with gorgeous animation, each a metaphor for some of life’s more complex lessons. Lessons that illustrate how most things aren’t always cut and dry, black and right, right and wrong. Sometimes it’s okay to be in the middle, think one thing and do another, and through these lessons the audience learns both Conor’s truth and, hopefully, the truth about themselves. Though the film is about a child and a talking tree, it’s more layered, emotional, and powerful than most films starring adults. The film is a tale of loss, filled with life lessons anyone, children included, will find challenging and heartbreaking. Once the film has established just how hard a life Connor has, the focus goes back to where it should have always been: the mother and Connor’s acceptance of her state of health. This is clearly the strong point of the story and the ending is executed beautifully. It’s interesting that the film opens with the narrator describing Connor as being too old to be a kid but too young to be an adult. By extension, that is precisely where this film fits in. It’s too “old” to be a kid’s film but too “young” to be an adult film. And that’s okay as growing up is hard, and when faced with a family member or close friend with a terminal illness, life is exponentially more difficult emotionally and even psychically. Unconventional as it may seem, this film is powerful and transcends the age spectrum to provide a strong emotional journey that audiences can appreciate and from which people may receive comfort. Aimed to pitch primarily at the young, which means it’s more simplistic than a lot of adult audiences will prefer. Even though it packs surprises in its particulars, the broader strokes of the plot are easy to see in the opening minutes. And in the end, this is a film about a boy watching his mom die of cancer, which isn’t a trip that’s especially enticing—no matter how many nifty-looking animated interludes are sprinkled in. The Monster’s twisted little morality tales are the best parts of the film, each of which ring a familiar tune. The first features a Prince Charming-type that must topple an evil witch that married the king, poisoned him and killed the prince’s love interest. On the surface, it’s a traditional good-versus-evil narrative, but the clichéd story takes a dark twist at the end. The woman was a witch, the Monster explains, but she didn’t poison the king — he died of old age. The prince, meanwhile, murdered his love interest in order to frame the witch and take the throne. He was, ultimately, a good and fair king that had a prosperous reign. The other stories from the Monster — a medieval tale of the hypocrisy of religious faith, and an “invisible man who had grown tired of being unseen” — offer similar conclusions for Conor: The line between good and bad is often blurred. His grandmother may appear cold and distant, for instance, but she is reconciling with her daughter’s impending death in different ways. Conor’s father recognizes his son’s pain, and comforts him, but can’t offer him a refuge from his grandmother in America. That doesn’t make him a bad person, either. They don’t live in the desperate denial that Conor clings on to: that his mother will eventually be on the mend from the cancer, perhaps with a new treatment. This isn’t Conor’s fault — he’s only 13, and it’s heartbreaking to process as a viewer, but the film provides differing perspectives on the process of grief. Like the stories from the Monster, the ways in which the characters grieve aren’t definitively right or wrong.

Directed by J.A. Bayona, the talented visual filmmaker behind the upcoming Jurassic World 2, makes it obvious from the opening credits alone that this was going to be a visually stunning film. The water color animation and brushstrokes are reminiscent of the story of the three brothers in Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows – Part 2, which was absolutely beautiful! Much in the same way the recent Kubo and the Two Strings was an innovative animated film, the film also contains unconventional and innovative methods of telling its story. Similar to how the animated story of the three brothers in Harry Potter film was integrated into the narrative of a live action film, so it is with this film. Rendered in animation designed to look like watercolors and narrated in Neeson’s commanding growl, the stories speak of witches and princes and ancient grudges, and each takes an unexpected turn that leaves Conor more confused than ever. None of them follow the usual arc of good triumphing over evil. They’re all jumbled up and inconclusive, describing a world that’s much messier than even the brightest kid could comprehend. The film does manage to balance its fantasy element easily and this makes for very heavy tonal shifts and secure storytelling and directing. But that’s probably also the one big flaw: it’s all a lot of style and little substance in my eyes, despite the supposedly devastating and traumatic core. It feels like a story more fit for a short film than a feature film, seeing as there is little character development for everyone except Connor, also if you think about it, the ending is pretty much spoiled from the beginning, and the relationships grow via small conversations dealing with past events rather than new actions introducing new motivations. Though the narrative may feel a little baity and appealing, but it’s not a full-on melodrama, since the monster brings the necessary touches of humor, without feeling out of place. In fact, this was a tricky story to handle as far as tone is concerned, and Bayona definitely delivered in that regard, keeping the mess at bay. In this sense, I don’t think he went too far to try to emotionally manipulate the audience as some have claimed: personally I don’t have a problem crying at films and didn’t feel the urge to here. In any case, the performances are strong across the board and manage to make you care for these characters. But for those who can handle heavy emotions in a children’s film and can overlook some of the narrative clunkiness, the film has too many well-observed moments and unusual grace notes to write off as merely “for kids.” In the lead, the young Lewis MacDougall is remarkable! He gives one of those rare child performances where ever time he’s on screen you see a million things on his face all at once. He’s tired, sad, angry and confused, all at the same time throughout the 108 minute run time. Felicity Jones, Sigourney Weaver, and Toby Kebbell provide fine supporting performances while Liam Neeson breathes a compelling complexity into a monster who is given no name, little back-story, and a remarkable responsibility in carrying its story and message. It might come as little surprise, as he did an excellent job with duality and voice work in The LEGO Movie, but here it’s something deeper, darker, and far more challenging. Yet Neeson’s growls—sometimes indifferent, sometimes challenging, sometimes soft—provide a sturdy backbone to this tricky tale. On the whole, ‘A Monster Calls’ is a compelling & deeply moving film which despite its predictability & flaws is visually likable & intimate.