Official
Australian release date: 27/7/17. Viewed: 24/7/17.
Director:
J.A. Bayona
Actors:
Lewis MacDougall, Felicity Jones, Sigourney Weaver, Liam Neeson
Genre: Drama
/ Fantasy
Rating:
PG
‘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.
Overall: Very strong, and beautiful, portrayal
of grief.
Gav's Rating: 4 stars.
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