A Monster Calls - Beautiful And Emotional Film With A Breakout Performance By Lewis MacDougall

Certificate – 12A

Directed by – J.A. Bayona

Starring – Lewis MacDougall; Liam Neeson, Felicity Jones; Sigourney Weaver & Toby Kebbell.

Running Time – 108 Minutes (1 hour 48 minutes)

★★★★½

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I’ve been lucky to see this film twice (the first time at the London Film Festival and at a regular screening) and luckily the trailers haven’t given away many spoilers, so you can go into the film without knowing a lot.

Best advice is to bring tissues, as you’ll cry ugly Kim Kardashian tears. Because when I’ve been at both screenings especially LFF all you heard during the credits were critics sniffing and crying.

12-year-old Conor O’Malley (MacDougall) is dealing with his mum (Jones) terminal illness, which means he has to live with his grandmother (Weaver). He meets a 40-foot-high monster (Neeson) and he tells Conor fairy tales which will impact his life more than he ever expected.

I loved this film. The cast was incredible and MacDougall is a breakout star, he cares the film all by himself and is just superb and we’ll see him nominated for BAFTA’s Breakthrough Star. 

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Meanwhile, Jones plays the role of mum with heart and delicacy. At first, I thought Kebbel as Dad was a bit dickish, but he’s just a nice bloke in a situation trying to do what’s best.

On the other hand, Weaver is a legend, but her English accent is awful and distracting.

Elsewhere, Bayona has directed a visually stunning film (which I can see him nominated for Best Director) and when the monster told the stories, the watercolour illustrations were beautiful and brought depth to the film and you ever felt it was out of place with the rest of the film.

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Bayona’s blending of reality and dream’s was seamless, all the while being able to get this continuous tried, grey look in Conor’s face.

Throughout the film, Conor asks multiple times when he’s done something bad/wrong if he’s going to get punish? And he gets told, what would be the point. You see him hurting throughout and I think that was ways for him to psychology release his emotions.

As I mentioned at the top you’ll need to bring tissues and while watching you’ll be thinking why, but it hits you like a tonne of bricks and the film wants to make you cry and mess with your emotions.

Verdict

The story was beautiful and emotional with stunning visuals. The performances with wonderful with MacDougall being a real gem and was directed wonderfully by J.A. Bayona.