Review of A Monster Calls (2016) by Kaptenvideo — 25 Dec 2016

A mother seems to be dying, a boy is sad. He awakes the monster that wants to tell him three stories and hear one in return. Starring Lewis MacDougall as the boy, Felicity Jones as the mother, Sigourney Weaver as the grandmother and Liam Neeson as the voice of the Monster.

There's are no more Tolkien or Potter movies left to show this year but every self-respecting holiday season needs a larger-than-life fantasy epic, so we have been given "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" and "A Monster Calls" instead.

I have commented on "Beasts" already (see my November 16 post) which is probably better of the two. Both are basically visual effects oriented family movies but "Beasts" aims lower on intellectual level which allows it to deliver with more ease on spectacle level. "Monster" tries to be both a thoughful story – think along the lines of "Little Prince" – and effects show. It does give us both, and both kind of work too, but the result feels more artificial than heartfelt, sadly.

To the director's credit, J.A. Bayona ("El orfanato", "Lo imposible") is adept on creating suitably ominous atmosphere and getting a solid performance out of newcomer MacDougall as a boy driven to the edge by hardships in life. All the other characters are more like part of the decorations, so no need to stop on them.

But surprisingly for a near two hour movie, storytelling feels rushed almost all of the time, so the characters and events lose most of the impact they could have had. The result has all the emotional heft of a good-looking music video. It's watchable enough but not really going places.

"Monster" has somewhat unusual approach which may work for its favor; animated sequences are cool, too. But in the end it's not more memorable than any other effects-laden family-oriented adventure.