Review of A Monster Calls (2016) by Gavin P — 23 Jul 2017

'A Monster Calls' has almost nothing to do with a monster - at it's heart, it's a straightforward story about a 12-year-old boy dealing with grief, with help from an imaginary friend. It's from Bayona, the director of 'The Impossible' (another very good survival drama), so it will be interesting to see what he does with 'Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom'. The film centers around Conor (MacDougall), a quiet kid who loves to draw, who has a sick Mum (Jones) and a stern Grandma (Weaver). At 12:07am each night, he has a dream/nightmare where he hears a tree-monster calling him.

Filmed in Manchester, there's plenty of rain and opportunities for spooky shadows and scares, but the beauty is in the benevolent twist taken on the Groot-like "monster" (Neeson), who is obviously Conor's way of dealing with his mum's cancer. The watercolour animations set to Neeson's storytelling is excellently done, with some nice morals thrown in to the "dreams" Conor has when the "monster" is present.

It never gets too fantastic or unrealistic, with MacDougall successfully carrying a great load for such a young actor. He's helped expertly by Jones & Weaver, who have very significant, but relatively small, roles. It's not sad the entire film, but it really hits home for the final 15min and did not leave a dry eye in the cinema.