A Monster Calls

Whereas in Arrival, a mother says goodbye to her daughter, here a son says goodbye to his mother. A more serious, darker and deeper movie than Spielberg’s playful The BFG, with which a comparison is at hand. A Monster Calls is more of a sad drama than a fantasy adventure. Everything revolves around family relationships and the fantasy elements are just a means of making the story more accessible for children. But I don’t know whether I’d want to burden my children with a topic so sad. As a reminder of certain values, it’s more suitable for adolescents. But those would prefer Fifty Shades of Grey. (11.01.2017)

I have never come across a movie that tells a pretty sad and emotional dramatic story and that makes story-telling easier for itself using fantasy motifs in the form of the monster itself that speaks with the charismatic voice of Liam Neeson. We could actually say that this isn’t fantasy at all. The entire story is based on a sad human story from the gloomy English countryside. Nevertheless, it is the atmosphere of the English countryside and the monster itself that make the movie into a really good event which at the end must get to pretty much every viewer. (15.12.2017)

Artistically remarkable, skilled directing, emotionally flat... I was more struck by metaphorical animated insertions than by the slightly insensitive verbal chemotherapy of real life. The topic is truly serious, but the film helps it alibistically to its own seriousness rather than being able to truly contain it. Unfortunately, the heated scenes evoke in some way the cumbersomeness of Fesser's "oncological" drama Camino, albeit in a much more bearable package. As another sprout of the "realistic children's movies" branch (let’s say together with Pete's Dragon), it is definitely an interesting mainstream alternative. (27.03.2017)

A nice fairy tale about unpleasant things. Parts of it work almost perfectly, and during the animated sequences I was literally gushing with bliss at the endless visual and emotional creativity, but as a whole the narrative is rather heavy-handed, calibrated towards a not very distinct and insufficiently overarching twist. While The Big Friendly Giant was for children and had no significant communicative ambitions, A Monster Calls has no clear target audience and delivers its profound message impressively, but not in such a way that children will fully absorb it and will keep adults thinking about it longer than a few minutes after the end. Strong 3*. (18.04.2017)

I consider Liam Neeson's voice to be the best thing about the whole film. The main character was beyond unrelatable. If it were up to me, some cruel and fatal accident would have befallen the nasty bastard. Fangorn was so convincing that I kept anticipating the arrival of Saruman. Apart from the standard play on emotions, the film also featured an overgrown yew tree and a couple of cartoons, which wasn’t enough for me. (29.08.2017)

The passages with the tree monster and its metaphorical tales are very well done, but once twelve-year-old Conor returns to the reality of everyday life, the whole plot starts to drag a bit, and considering the predictable ending, it becomes increasingly boring. That's probably the main reason why the final wringer of emotions basically went unheard and didn't move me. Which isn't usual for me, so something must be wrong. (60%) (22.12.2020)