Movie manipulation is a fine line to walk when crafting a film. When done right, you get something like ET, a brilliant tear inducing experience that will be seminal for every child. Terms of Endearment is the opposite side of that, a movie that DEMANDS you cry because every situation is crafted to generate tears at the expense of the characters. A Monster Calls is certainly manipulative, but it falls somewhere in the middle. I did have tears, but I was onto their game from the start.
Conor (Lewis MacDougall) might be having one of the worst years of anyone. He gets bullied at school, constantly. His dad (Toby Kebbell) drops in and out of his life to offer glimpses of a life together and then disappear again. His grandma (Sigourney Weaver) is really controlling and becoming a greater and greater presence in Conor’s life. And worst of all, his rock and confidant, his mom (Felicity Jones) is struck with cancer and slowly but surely succumbing to it. To deal with his pain, Conor draws a monster (voice of Liam Neeson) which comes to life to tell him 3 stories and hear a 4th from Conor himself, the 4th being Conor’s truth.
A Monster Calls’s biggest sin is its show don’t tell attitude. Patrick Ness wrote the book the movie is based on; the conceit is clearly better designed for a book, because the book has to explain things. The stories are cute and well conceived for a reader, but as an audience member, they’re not terribly deep AND even worse they’re explained to us by the monster. Really? The duplicitous prince can be BOTH good and evil? Shocker! I get the sense kids without dying family members will roll their eyes at this material because of how smart it thinks it is. Also, this story is so dark that Ness feels the need to inject some humor into the situation, but his success rate is not very good. This gigantic monster wisecracking and smart alecking a hurt kid clangs early on (it does get better though).
However, Ness does a good job setting up how dire Conor’s situation actually is in smart ways too. His dad and grandma have enough shading to make them more than two dimensional characters, and his mom helps Conor realize his final truth in the 4th story. The monster is beautifully rendered, a Guillermo Del Toro/Groot combination that uses Neeson’s booming voice to establish a scary but forceful presence Conor acquits himself too. The stories may be maudlin, but they are animated in a way that fits the stories bleak subject matter.
What makes A Monster Calls succeed is its devastating third act. This is where movie manipulation is at its most…satisfying? Not the right word, but it’ll do. By the time the 4th story rolls along, bring the Kleenex out. My word, you get hit with so many feelings…not all of them are sad though, a nice trick by Ness. Conor’s whole emotional processing and journey would turn even the hardest shell into a blithering sobbing mess. Nicely too, the final truth contains some more complexity than the earlier parts of the story, and ties all the buildup and actions of our hero into a nice little arc he has for himself. You, like Conor, are almost happy the end of the story happens, because you just want everyone to reach some state of peace.
I’m not sure who A Monster Calls is for. It’s WAY too scary for young kids, but perhaps a bit too on the nose for adults. However, it is a powerful emotional journey that might help you work out some feeling you have buried inside you that need to get out. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go cry myself to sleep…