British Actress Blog

A Monster Calls (2016)

Score: Perfect 10/10

Director: J.A. Bayona

Stars: Felicity Jones, Sigourney Weaver, Lewis MacDougall.

A Monster Calls

Felicity Jones

Synopsis: A boy seeks the help of a tree creature to cope with his single mother’s terminal illness.

Review: Conor ( Lewis MacDougall ) is a young boy who suffers from nightmares. His dreams are of an old church crumbling, the ground opens up, and his mother falls in to her death. He wakes up in a cold sweat and breathing heavily. Conor is traumatized by his dream. To him the dream is an omen. He is horrifically bullied at school. This combined with is nightmares, causes him great distress which is noticed by his teachers. Conor tries to escape from his current reality by drawing artwork. Unfortunately for the boy, he has to deal with the troubles and issues of the real world. With the help of his new found friend, he tackles these issues.

Mother

and Son

Felicity Jones does a solid job as always. The makeup that was used on her really makes her look sick with an illness. She has great interaction with the young actor Lewis MacDougall, as if he was her own son. Sigourney Weaver gives a top notch performance in this film. Its really not surprising, she has been dominating the science fiction genre with the alien films. Yes, even the unintentionally hilarious Alien Resurrection (1997) with Winona Ryder and Michael Wincott. Lewis MacDougall does a tremendous job of acting for such a young actor. He is really talented for his age. His performance is sincere. When he is sad it looks very real, almost like he is not acting but living the scene. Toby Kebbell performance is well done here but I don’t think any of his performances can beat his acting in Dark Mirror (TV Series) - The Entire History of You (2011) as his character ‘Liam’.

Lewis MacDougall

As 'Conor'

I cant help being reminded of the movie The Matrix (1999) or the video game Silent Hill. The main character falls asleep and completely enters another world. Of course the character ’Neo’ was asleep of sorts. On the other side Conor speaks to a tree monster in this movie that is not dissimilar from ‘Groot’ in Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.1 (2014) and the ‘Ents’ from Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002). The tree monster tells Conor stories very much like how the ‘Watchers’ told Noah stories of Methuselah from the movie Noah (2014).

Dealing with

reality

The film focuses on the concept of reality. In reality people die and the main character Conor can not escape this reality. Even his tree monster friend forces him to accept this reality. The film shows Conor being bullied and at some point Conor fights his bully back. Unfortunately this is a reality for some young people growing up. The tree monster gets Conor to deal with this problem and helps Conor understand that drawing art work to run away from the problem wont solve anything. Conor also has to accept the reality of making peace with his relatives. The film posits that the young child wont stay a child forever and must grow into a man, putting away childish thing when the time comes, but also accept the reality of his current situation. Bottom line is that as a young person he must be raised well in order for him to grow into a balanced person. Conor needs the help of his family and locking himself away wont allow him to move forward.

Felicity Jones

As 'Mum'

The films cinematography and lighting are superb. The pacing of the film perfectly matches the characters mood. The real world has a drab and grey hue to the camera work while the dream world has a mystical and elusive fairy tale vibe to it which makes the film interesting. The movie has no trouble getting you right into the story. The plot advances very fast making for a very consistent film. This movie has characters that serve the plot and not the other way around, which is great. This is how good stories are told. The movie was so real at times. The actors all did a perfect job in this film. The movies graphic are very well done. High quality. This is a very heart felt story earning this film a perfect score.

Recent Posts