By George Haerle
For The Daily World
Jurassic World 2 is going to be awesome. Why? The dinosaur-filled action flick is being helmed by J.A. Bayona, the talented filmmaker who has brought us 2017’s first top-notch film, “A Monster Calls.”
Starring Lewis MacDougall as Conor, a boy growing up while his mother (Felicity Jones of “Rogue One: A Star Wars story”) is sick with cancer, and his grandmother (Sigourney Weaver’ oh don’t pretend you don’t know who she is) tries to take him to live with her while his mother receives treatment.
Conor loses himself in his own world, constantly drawing and imagining his own dreams around him, while he tries to take care of his ailing mother and is being ganged up on by bullies at school.
Every night he is haunted by nightmares of a graveyard and a yew tree falling onto the earth, losing his mother to the abyss. While this may seem like a generic or cliché way to represent the metaphor of the fear of death, Bayona uses it effectively, keeping the focus on the possibility of the mother’s mortality in the real world.
One night, while drawing in his room, a great monster — that looks oddly familiar to Groot from “Guardians of the Galaxy” (only much bigger and fantastically voiced by Liam Neeson) — emerges from a great Yew tree and visits Conor at his window. The monster promises to return, each time telling Conor a story, and in return expecting Conor to tell him the fourth after the monster’s third, implying to eat him if he doesn’t.
Once it’s finished showing how bad of a hand life has dealt Conor and his mother, “A Monster Calls” truly shines with its story and the smaller stories the monster tells within. As to be expected, each story is meant to teach some kind of lesson, but the lessons and their culmination — not only Conor, but also the audience — will draw tears. I mean it; it will punch you right in the feels (millennial lingo). I’ll even admit it: I, a grown 27-year-old, was very glad that I was watching the movie in a very dark theater as I silently slumped into my seat to cry.
“A Monster Calls” is a movie about storytelling and dealing with the possibility of confronting death, and how we as people often use stories and fantasy to cope with such, even if we know that life is not fair.
Because of the very sad and sometimes depressing concepts that “A Monster Calls” deals with, I can’t recommend it for everyone. Families with young children probably should not see it, not for any fear of the monster, but rather, Felicity Jones’ heartfelt and authentic portrayal of Conor’s young mother battling cancer just may be a little bit too disheartening of a concept to lay down on children younger than 10 to 12.
The only real weak points of the movie are the scenes with Conor’s father, played by Tobey Kebbell. Kebbell does a fine job at acting — his character just doesn’t contribute a whole lot — and the story line involving his character probably doesn’t even need to be there. Everyone is either good or excellent, with Felicity Jones and Liam Neeson taking the cake.
That being said, what “A Monster Calls” has to say about how life can be equally painful and beautiful at the same time, and should absolutely not be missed by those growing up, especially in today’s world.
Please go and see “A Monster Calls.” It does not seem to be getting as much attention as it deserves, and the marketing for it, although good, hasn’t quite hit home.
Then again, who’s to be sure how much attention any movie is going to get for the next month with “Rogue One” probably dominating the box office for a while longer. If you’ve already visited “Rogue One” three times — like everyone else, though — you can skip the fourth and see “A Monster Calls” instead.
• • •
“A Monster Calls” is currently playing at the Riverside Cinemas, 1017 S. Boone St. in Aberdeen.
George Haerle is a 2008 graduate of Aberdeen High and holds a bachelor’s degree in creative writing for media and lives in Cosmopolis.
