Movie review: ‘A Monster Calls,’ powerful adaptation explores the enormity of grief
"A Monster Calls." (Focus Features)
"A Monster Calls." (Focus Features)
Parents need to know that "A Monster Calls" is the powerful, emotionally wrenching adaptation of award-winning author Patrick Ness' heartbreaking young adult novel. (Common Sense Media/TNS)
Parents need to know that “A Monster Calls” is the powerful, emotionally wrenching adaptation of award-winning author Patrick Ness’ heartbreaking young adult novel about a 13-year-old boy dealing with his mother’s terminal illness and sudden visits from a loud, scary storytelling tree monster (voiced by Liam Neeson). The animated stories within the story are frequently bloody, and all have unexpected lessons about humans’ complexity. There’s also some schoolyard violence — Conor is picked on by a relentless bully who physically and verbally abuses him (and one day, Conor fiercely reciprocates). Conor also destroys his grandmother’s living room and has a terrifying recurring nightmare about a horrible disaster that nearly kills him and his mum. Many scenes feature upsetting, overwhelming sadness as Conor comes to terms with his mother’s mortality and his own complicated feelings about what’s happening. For families dealing with loss or grief, this film could help kids acknowledge and express what they’re going through, but despite themes of compassion and courage, it can be very difficult to watch. Bring tissues.
WHAT’S THE STORY?
“A Monster Calls” is based on Patrick Ness’ award-winning novel about 13-year-old British boy Conor O’Malley (Lewis MacDougall) who lives with and cares for his very ill single mother (Felicity Jones). Bullied at school, artistic Conor begins to receive nightly visits from a huge monster that transforms from the ancient yew tree behind his house. The Monster (voiced by Liam Neeson) calls on the boy at exactly 12:07 am and lets him know that he’ll tell Conor three stories and then expects one in return — but it must be the truth. Angry at both the Monster’s morality tales and his mother’s worsening condition, Conor retaliates against his bullies, his father (Toby Kebbell) visiting from America, and his grandmother (Sigourney Weaver) before things finally come to a devastating climax.
IS IT ANY GOOD?
Author Ness penned this adaptation of his own novel, which is as poignant as his beautiful book and features brilliant performances by Jones, MacDougall, and Neeson. Director J.A. Bayona is no stranger to depicting intense mother-child dynamics. His 2012 historical drama “The Impossible” captured a mother and son’s fraught post-tsunami journey; in “A Monster Calls,” there’s just as treacherous a disaster looming over every interaction between Conor and his beloved mum — the unspoken cancer that’s eating away at her slowly but surely.
MacDougall gives one of the finest youth performances of 2016 as angry, sad, confused Conor, who’s hoping beyond hope that his mum will get better but who also knows (as the Monster’s visits and stories symbolize) that the inevitable is on its way — and who’s desperately afraid to admit that tangled up with anticipatory grief is a sense of possible relief. Jones is also wonderful as a mother who desperately wishes she had “100 years to give” her son but knows it’s not a possibility. But the heart of the film isn’t simply Conor and his mother but Conor and the Monster, and Neeson’s spectacular rendering of the yew-tree creature is both frightening and comforting. As he tells Conor, the truth, like people, is complicated and even contradictory, but it’s what you need to face to move forward.
RATING AND CONTENT
Recommended for ages 12 and older
Quality: 4 out of 5
Positive messages: 4 out of 5
Positive role models: 3 out of 5
Violence: 3 out of 5
Sex: 1 out of 5
Language: 1 out of 5
Drinking, drugs, and smoking: 0 out of 5
Consumerism: 1 out of 5 (Are products/advertisements embedded? Is the title part of a broader marketing initiative/empire? Is the intent to sell things to kids?)
MOVIE DETAILS
Theatrical release date: December 23, 2016
Director: J.A. Bayona
Studio: Focus Features
Genre: Drama
Run time: 108 minutes
MPAA rating: PG-13
