A Monster Calls (film review) *contains spoilers*

Film: A Monster Calls
Year: 2016
Genre: Animation, Drama, Fantasy
Directed By: J.A. Bayona
Starring: Lewis McDougall, Sigourney Weaver, Felicity Jones
About: A boy seeks the help of a tree monster to cope with his single mother's terminal illness
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2Xbo-irtBA

My Review:
Having been meaning to watch this for a while I was glad that I noticed this was on Netflix and as a result decided to give this a watch and I am so glad that I did.

The film follows a boy named Connor and when his mother starts getting worse while being ill with cancer starts the grieving process and gets the help from a monster who helps him with the first four stages of the grieving process. I thought that this film was done really well and had the animation work really well with the stories in which the tree monster was showing Connor and showed the four stages very tastefully. This made me enjoy the movie more as I feel that they were not pushing the movie too far in a direction that would not have worked for adults and teenagers. By showing Denial, Anger, Bargaining and Depression it was good showing how this effected Connor each step of the way even though he doesn't realise at first that he is the one that the monster is helping until near the end of the movie. By also showing how the grandmother and Connor don't particularly see eye to eye as well but realise that when the mother is gone all they will have is each other they starts to pull together in order to make the mother happy and keep her in their memory well as they both loved her. I did think that by the monster always coming at 12.07 which ends up being the time the mother died was a great addition as it brought the time into it really well in order to get Connor ready for what was happening to him. I also thought that by having the end of the movie where Connor sees his mothers pictures and notices the stories in which he had been told by the monster was a good way of showing how even those dying goes through the five stages which ends in Acceptance. The acting throughout this movie was also really well done and made it very moving to watch which led to me tearing up which was a great way of knowing the director and cast was doing a brilliant job.

Personally, I would highly recommend this movie to those who are wanting a film on symbolism and about dealing with death. I am definitely going to be seeing this movie again and I am glad that there is a movie which goes through this topic in a way which is tasteful.

My Rating: 5/5 

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