A MONSTER CALLS (2016)

A MONSTER CALLS (2016)

Tagline: Stories are wild creatures.

(Drama, Fantasy, I Hear...the Secrets That You Keep) [PG-13]

Of course, you are afraid. It will be hard; it will be more than hard. But you will make it through, Conor O'Malley.

In this one, Conor O’Malley is a 12-year-old boy whose mother is dying from a terminal illness. On top of this, he is being bullied at school. Because of this, his grandmother has started to take care of him, but he also has another issue. He is periodically visited by a massive tree monster who has 3 tales to tell. At the end of the 3 tales, Conor will finally have to face the truth about his situation.  

This film is based on an unfinished book by Siobhan Dowd. She passed away before it could be completed, but an ending was written by Patrick Ness for this film. Patrick was also one of the two writers on CHAOS WALKING (another movie based on a book). I do remember seeing at least one trailer for it, but thinking to myself the only real draw was the cast. I rarely see movies for the cast alone. Now, it did have a giant tree monster, but just didn’t really draw me in. I wasn’t the only one not “drawn in”. The movie barely made over the estimated budget even with 3 very popular stars. 

The storyline is pretty much one long 108-minute downer. J.A. Bayona’s directorial style of handling the subject matter is extremely interesting, but that doesn’t really fix that it’s a downer. Each story this monster tells is freaking devastating. I liked that one of the lessons was basically that a man preaching that has no faith is disgusting, but outside of that, the other stories essentially serve as a method of telling this Conor “Life is complicated”. Even Conor basically says he can’t stand the stories. Why would they expect the audience to embrace them? We do get kind of an “Oh, that’s what that meant”, at the end of the film, but by then we have already seen a pretty lifeless depressing film. 

None of this is to say that there is nothing to learn here. My point is that the subject matter is heavy and depressing. Sometimes that’s good if you are in the mood for that or maybe you are coping with something hard and this movie can help you gleam some sense of small emotional “triumph” in your sorrow. 

Acting wise we get some amazing performances. I am not a huge fan of Lewis MacDougall (at least so far), but he crushes this role even if he comes across as annoying at times. You can kind of let that slide because his character is dealing with something extremely emotionally taxing for anyone. Sigourney Weaver (AVATAR: THE WAY OF WATER) does a great job as the grandmother in this. She isn’t given a lot of screen time, but to be honest it really wasn’t necessary. Felicity Jones (THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 2) is great as the mom in this. I really think this is one of the better performances in her entire catalog. Then finally if you need something to sound super serious or instill confidence you hire James Earl Jones, Morgan Freeman, or Liam Neeson. They picked Neeson (KRULL) for the monster’s voice in this and he does an outstanding job. Any one of these three talents just being part of a film automatically makes it better. Not necessarily “mind-blowing”, but certainly better. 

I didn’t love the animation style during the storytelling parts, but I do like that they swung for the fences creatively adding some visual intrigue to the endeavor beyond the tree monster itself. 

In the end, this is not really a “let’s all run to the theater” and watch this great kid’s movie. It’s also not a “let’s all run to the theater” and watch this depressing downer of a film with life lessons movie. Instead, this is a slow click on the most convenient streaming service and an even slower die into a film that crawls into your emotional psyche. Then it drops you like a ton of bricks, but in such a way that it makes you think. If that is your thing, then have at it. 

For me, this was a 4 out of 7, but I would definitely have to be in the mood to ever watch it again.

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