‎A Monster Calls (2016) directed by Juan Antonio Bayona • Reviews, film + cast • Letterboxd

A Monster Calls

2016 Directed by Juan Antonio Bayona

Stories are wild creatures.

A boy imagines a monster that helps him deal with his difficult life and see the world in a different way.

Lewis MacDougall Sigourney Weaver Felicity Jones Toby Kebbell Liam Neeson Geraldine Chaplin Jennifer Lim James Melville Lily-Rose Aslandogdu Dominic Boyle Max Gabbay Oliver Steer Ben Moor Frida Palsson

108 mins More details at IMDb TMDb Report this film

Popular reviews

Review by matt lynch ★★★ 2

This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

Weird GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY prequel about how the tree man helps young Star Lord deal with his mom dying.
Review by davidehrlich ★★½ 12

Pan's Labyrinth for kids dealing with cancer. dark, dull, and didactic, but could be helpful to those in need. do yourself a favor and see KUBO instead.

and now, the unfairness: my dad died of cancer a few months ago. this film gets a lot of the inner turmoil right (and crucially so), but if your cancer-related tearjerker does nothing for me at this point... that's on you.
Review by Evan ★★★½ 3

TIFF 2016 Film #13

A Monster Calls touched the depths of my soul. Visually stunning, well acted, and filled with emotion this film had me fully engaged. I was pretty much in tears the entirety of the final 20 minutes and so was everyone else. You could hear the sniffling echoing through out the theater. I won't spoil it, but this one line absolutely wrecked me to my core. While most of the emotion is earned, I will say that it is somewhat manipulative.
Review by Travis Lytle ★★★★½ 4

A fantasy about the all-too real ways humans deal with loss, Juan Antonio Bayona's "A Monster Calls" offers a cinematic heart that beats with anger, sadness, and inspiring vigor. Based on Patrick Ness's novel, the film the tells the story of a young boy whose struggle with life and loss reflect the universal education that is human existence.

Revolving around young Conor O'Malley, "A Monster Calls" finds the boy dealing with school bullies, a cantankerous grandmother, and, most importantly, a dying mother. Conor spends his days caring, as best he can, for his mother, drawing, and recoiling from both literal and figurative nightmares. When a monstrous, lumbering tree with fiery eyes appears at his window, Conor begins a journey that…
Review by CJ Probst ★★★★ 7

All those years ago I remember sitting in the theater watching The Lord of the Rings, looking around and thinking, "Man, I really don't love these as much as everyone else in here." I recognized them as a spectacular achievement but was rather bored through them, just not for me. My least favorite parts of those films were the talking tree scenes. Every time one of those tedious bastards showed up that was my cue to shuffle my way out of the auditorium for a piss.

Sooooooo, A Monster Calls felt a little bit like an Ent trying his goddamned hardest to make me cry for just under two hours. As I was at a bit of a disadvantage due…
Review by Steve G ★★★★ 4

My 9 year old daughter's enthusiasm for seeing A Monster Calls after being rather excited by the trailers for it we had seen wasn't quite treated to the tale about a friendly talking tree that saves a boy from being bullied that she hoped it would be.

"That wasn't quite what I expected," she commented as we exited the cinema. "But it was really, really good!"

The fact that she spent practically the whole film perched on the edge of her seat was clue enough to me that she really enjoyed it, and understandably so. It's not quite like any film she had watched before or that we had watched together (we watch one together every Saturday, at the cinema…

Recent reviews

Review by Kira Cumming ★★★★½

I weeped for fucking hours.
Review by Oneepiexe ★★★★

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Viele geben Sieben Minuten nach Mitternacht die volle Punktzahl. Das kann ich auch durchaus nachvollziehen, allerdings habe ich doch die ein oder andere Sache an dem Film auszusetzen. Meiner Meinung nach hat der Film die ein oder anderen Längen an manchen Stellen, die man hätte kürzen können. Dann finde ich manche Reaktionen der Figuren auf das Handeln des Protagonisten nicht nachvollziehbar. Aber sonst habe ich an Sieben Minuten nach Mitternacht nichts auszusetzen.
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8/10 Punkte
Review by Madylan ★★★★★

Wow... I am a blubbering mess????
Review by Grant M ★★★★ 2

Heartbreaking and moving without ever resorting to easy manipulation. A really well depicted version of the Ness book.
Review by Gabe Murphy

An odd combination of a very good 2008 film and a pretty good 2016 film
Review by kirstyjane ★★★

The actor who plays Conor was fantastic and I did enjoy watching this story come to life on screen, particularly in the way the tales were told by the yew tree/monster/Liam Neeson.
Review by Mårten Larsson ★★★★

Felicity Jones and young Lewis MacDougall are truly terrific. Liam Neeson is perfect as the voice of the monster and the VFX superb. The English locations make for a great atmosphere. Most importantly the writing from Patrick Ness is strong.
Review by Apolla ★★★★★

Ah, ugly sobbing. This one is hard to watch.
Review by natyfoti99 ★★★★

Perfect. It’s like the book has become alive. I really loved how the stories where told and the actor who plays Conor is fantastic. I also liked the ending that was not in the book. Absolutely beautiful. There was not the magic between me and the movie, as it was for the book though, but that doesn’t mean that this is a wonderful book adaptation.