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A Monster Calls review [TIFF ’16]

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A Monster Calls review: J.A. Bayona directs and Liam Neeson voices a tree in the his fantasy tear-jerker which may just have taken the lead in this year’s awards season race.

A Monster Calls review by Paul Heath, September 2016.

A Monster Calls review

A Monster Calls review

A Monster Calls is the big-screen adaptation of the children’s fantasy novel of the same name by Patrick Ness, based on an original idea by Siobhan Dowd, who came up with story when she was diagnosed with terminal cancer. Down sadly died before she could write the story so Ness took it on and also writes the screenplay for this ambitious film version directed by J.A. Bayona (The Impossible).

The story follows the character of Conor O’Malley (Lewis MaDougall), a thirteen year old struggling to come to terms with his mother’s illness as she undergoes treatment. During this process, Conor also has to deal with a recurring nightmare where he is visited at the same time every night (12.07 AM) by a mysterious monster (a walking Yew Tree – voiced by a gravelly and grand Liam Neeson) who tells him that he must listen to three short stories before recounting a fourth, which must come from him. As his mother’s condition worsens, and with major issues to deal with at school and with both is estranged father (Toby Kebbell) and grandmother (Sigourney Weaver), the visits from the monster become more frequent and more intense.

Bayona’s version of the original work has seen its release pushed back further and further over the course of its post-production period. After an initial release date set for October 2016, the film was pushed back earlier in the summer to early 2017, a positive move to ensure maximum exposure for awards season – and rightly so as this film stands a good chance at sweeping the board – it’s very, very, very good.

In the lead role of Conor is Lewis McDougall, a gifted young actor who made his debut as Nibs in last year’s underperforming reworking of the Peter Pan story, Pan. Here, the teenage actor shines in ever single scene that he appears in, which is near to being every single one in the movie. MacDougall manages to convey every single emotion there is – so essential to this story working, from loss, both from his absent father, and potential future without his mother, to bullying, not getting on with his strict grandmother and that difficult time in life where he’s not quite a boy and indeed not yet a man –  to quote a line in Ness’s superb script. MacDougall’s performance is focussed, heartbreaking and powerful.

A Monster Calls review

Bayona’s direction is simplistic and realistic in approach when it comes to the scenes in England at his school and with mother and family, while massively grand and glossy when he switches to those involving the monster and the tales he tells over the course of the film. Bayona employs some pretty amazing special effects, dwarfing the quality of most of the similarly-themed films we’ve already seen in 2016 (The BFG, for example), and some superb animated sequences too.

There wasn’t a dry eye in the house at this film’s initial screening at TIFF ’16 where it gets its world premiere and shares themes from this week’s other stand-out Manchester By The Sea, not only by its comparable subject matter in terms of loss and mourning, but how it also seemingly has affected every single person watching it.

As perfect an adaptation as it possibly could be, A Monster Calls is a major calling card for nominations for this year’s Oscar race, and we’d even be willing to put a couple of dollars down on it going home with some gold come early next year too.

Compelling and emotionally charged through some supreme direction from a spot-on screenplay, A Monster Calls is an outstanding piece of work and one not to be missed.

A Monster Calls review by Paul Heath, Toronto International Film Festival, 2016.

A Monster Calls will be released in January 2017.

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