Review of A Monster Calls (2016) by Patricia W — 08 Sep 2017

Somewhat in the vein of Pan's Labyrinth, A Monster Calls mixes real life drama and fantasy as a young boy is visited by a tree like monster whilst his mother's illness gets steadily worse. This is quite a dark tale for seemingly a children's film, Conor, played by Lewis MacDougall has a difficult and lonely life, he has a sick mother, an uncaring Grandmother, an absentee father and is bullied by a group of boys at school.

His way of coping with this through his drawings, stories and violent outbursts is the main thrust of the film and is relatively well done. The monster is voiced by Liam Neeson and although well animated it's design is very underwhelming, much like a copy of Tolkien's ents or an evil version of Groot.

The stories told by the monster are the most interesting parts of the film. Tey're animated in an interesting, somewhat minimalistic style and are designed as moral lessons for Conor and young audience members.

The main issue is with who the target viewers are for this film, the overall messages are a little heavy handed and overdone for adults but would be enjoyable for children but the topic is a bit too dark for a lot of children.

Overall, not a bad film but not particularly unique either.