A Monster Calls (2016)

His mother is dying. Conor (Lewis MacDougall) is twelve years old and cannot accept it. He has nightmares every night, he is bullied at school, and he faces being moved to his cold, distant grandmother’s (Sigourney Weaver) house. Then a yew tree begins to speak to him. My rating is ★4.0. This film disguises itself as a children’s movie, but it is really a film about grief that adults need to see.

What it’s about — Three stories told by a tree

Based on Patrick Ness’s novel of the same name. The Monster (voiced by Liam Neeson) tells Conor it will tell him three stories, and in return Conor must tell his own most truthful story. Conor knows what that story is, but refuses to acknowledge it. The moment in the latter half of the film when that truth is revealed reduces the audience to tears. The Monster’s three stories are not simple fairy tales. The stories of a good king and an evil king, an apothecary who didn’t trust the doctor, and an invisible man are all parables designed to help Conor see his own situation from a different angle. The way these stories are rendered in watercolor animation creates the most beautiful and most painful scenes in the film.

Direction — A boy’s inner world painted in watercolor

Bayona rendered the three stories as watercolor animation. These animated sequences are the most beautiful parts of the film. The way of moving back and forth across the boundary between live action and animation visually expresses how the line between Conor’s inner world and reality grows blurry. The Monster’s presence is remarkably physical and threatening despite being CGI. The VFX work that preserves the texture of wood while making the Monster feel like a living creature with weight is particularly outstanding. Liam Neeson’s voice completes that weight in sound. Conor’s double life — a boy struggling in reality by day and facing a giant tree monster by night — is also clearly distinguished through lighting and color.

Performance — A twelve-year-old’s grief that carries the film

Lewis MacDougall’s acting holds the entire film together. He conveys the grief, anger, and guilt tangled inside a twelve-year-old boy through his expressions and tears. Sigourney Weaver plays the grandmother in a British accent, a character who doesn’t know how to express her own loss. She seems cold at first but is understood later.

What the film says — Facing the truth you most want to hide

The core message of this film is that facing the truth you most want to hide — within grief — is the beginning of healing. The film quietly says that the thought Conor refuses to acknowledge, the thought that he wants his mother to be relieved quickly, is a perfectly natural one. It works the same way for children and adults alike.

Ratings & reception

IMDb score is 7.4 and Rotten Tomatoes freshness is 86%. It maintains a TMDB score above 7.3, and there are many reviews expressing deep empathy with the way it handles grief and healing. Among films based on children’s literature, it is considered one of the most seriously themed.

What doesn’t work

The emotional appeal is direct and may feel excessive to some viewers. The narrative also flows in a predictable direction. There are observations that the way the Monster’s stories connect to Conor’s situation isn’t subtle enough.

Verdict

If you’ve ever watched a film specifically in order to cry, this film produces that experience with honesty. It touches the most shameful, most truthful part of grief through the story of a boy. Don’t dismiss it as a children’s film — the second half will hit you hard. Patrick Ness’s source novel was completed after author Siobhan Dowd, who came up with the original idea while battling cancer, passed away before finishing it; Ness inherited that idea and brought it to completion. This story itself overlaps with the theme of loss that the novel and film address. J.A. Bayona would later direct Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018) and Amazon’s The Rings of Power series; A Monster Calls is considered the most emotionally pure work in his filmography. ★4.0.

Recommended for

• Those looking for a serious fantasy drama about the death of a family member or loss
• Those ready to cry
• Those who want a deeply resonant film that children and adults can both watch together