A Monster Calls (2016)
Director: J.A. Bayona. (12a)
Rating: 3/5 Good worth watching
Synopsis
Teenager Conor (Lewis MacDougal) is having a tough time. Bullied at High School by the vicious Harry (James Melville), he has the added stress of dealing with his beloved single mother's (Felicity Jones) terminal illness that is slowly robbing the two of any joy left in life.
His brittle, emotionally distant grandmother (Sigourney Weaver) and feckless but loving father (Toby Kebbel) who lives in Los Angeles with a new wife and child only compound his misery.
Then one day, Conor's emotional state conjures up a tree monster (voiced by Liam Neeson) who threatens Conor with tough love to deal with the situation life has dealt him, by relating three stories. The fourth story will be Conor's ultimate nightmare, one he has hitherto tried to avoid.
Review by Jason Day
Continuing what seems to be a run of tear-grabbing, emotionally overwrought 'blub-fest' movies, comes this fantasy drama from the director of the acclaimed Boxing Day Tsunami ordeal-porn The Impossible (2012) J.A. Bayona.
Adapted by Patrick Ness from his own blockbuster novel, which might explain the sensitive if hardly original feel to the film, it features a brace of stand-out performances. Not least amongst these is the massively impressive MacDougall as a young boy whose heightened, hormonal imagination creates a tree monster to help him overcome external threats (high school bullies) and internal troubles (his terminally ill mother's imminent death).
Its a stunning film in its own right with some seriously affecting moments (even Hollywood grande dame Weaver scores, despite a troubling English accent) but a creeping sense that we've seen this movie somewhere else, multiple times over.
For more, read the full review here
Cast & credits
Director: J.A. Bayona. 108mins. Apaches Entertainment/La Trini/A Monster Calls/Participant Media/River Road. (12a)
Producer: Belen Atienza.
Writer: Patrick Ness.
Camera: Oscar Faura.
Music: Fernando Velázquez.
Sets: Eugenio Caballero.
Lewis MacDougall, Sigourney Weaver, Felicity Jones, Toby Kebble, Liam Neeson (voice only), James Melville, Geraldine Chaplin.
