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A Monster Calls
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	J. A. Bayona
Screenplay by	Patrick Ness
Based on	A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness from an idea by Siobhan Dowd
Starring	Sigourney Weaver Felicity Jones Toby Kebbell Lewis MacDougall Liam Neeson
Cinematography	Óscar Faura
Edited by	Bernat Vilaplana Jaume Martí
Music by	Fernando Velázquez
Production companies	Participant Media River Road Entertainment Apaches Entertainment Telecinco Cinema Peliculas La Trini
Distributed by	Universal Pictures (Spain) Entertainment One Films (United Kingdom) Lionsgate (United States)
Release dates	September 10, 2016 (2016-09-10) (TIFF) October 7, 2016 (2016-10-07) (Spain) January 1, 2017 (2017-01-01) (United Kingdom)
Running time	108 minutes
Countries	Spain United Kingdom United States
Language	English
Budget	$43 million
Box office	$47.3 million

A Monster Calls is a 2016 dark fantasy drama film directed by J. A. Bayona and written by Patrick Ness, based on his 2011 novel of the same name, which in turn was based on an original idea by Siobhan Dowd. The film stars Sigourney Weaver, Felicity Jones, Toby Kebbell, Lewis MacDougall, and Liam Neeson, and tells the story of Conor (MacDougall), a child whose mother (Jones) is terminally ill; one night, he is visited by a monster in the form of a giant anthropomorphic yew tree (Neeson), who states that he will come back and tell Conor three stories. The film is an international co-production between Spain, United Kingdom and the United States.

A Monster Calls premiered at the 2016 Toronto International Film Festival on 10 September 2016. It was then released in Spain on 7 October 2016, and in the United Kingdom on 1 January 2017. In the United States, the film began a limited release on 23 December 2016, followed by a wide release on 6 January 2017. It received positive reviews, being praised for its themes, directing, performances and visual effects, but underperformed at the box office, grossing $47 million worldwide on a budget of $43 million.

Plot

13-year-old Conor O'Malley has a close bond with his seriously ill mother, and maintains the household during her regular chemotherapy treatments at the hospital. Conor's grandmother often visits, and suggests that Conor live with her in the event of his mother's death. Conor is reluctant to take up this offer due to her cold personality. At school, he is regularly tormented by his classmate Harry. He is also plagued by a nightmare in which the old church near his house collapses into a hole, where someone else is in danger of plummeting and he tries to hold onto them. Conor vents his emotions by drawing, a talent inherited from his mother. One night, exactly seven minutes past midnight, he sees the large yew tree next to the church transform into a gnarled Monster that approaches his home. The Monster says that it will tell Conor three stories during their next meetings, after which Conor must tell the Monster a fourth tale in return.

In the Monster's first story, a prince escapes from his stepmother, the supposedly-evil elderly queen, but then kills his sleeping bride under a yew tree and makes the queen the scapegoat so that his people can drive her away and make him king. As Conor's mother worsens, Conor moves in with his grandmother. After he angrily damages her valuable clock, the Monster appears and tells the second story: a hard-hearted parson forbids an apothecary from extracting medicine from an old yew tree, only to rescind this measure when his own children become ill. However, the apothecary cannot help him, and the Monster begins to destroy the parson's house as punishment. Conor enthusiastically joins in on the destruction, but comes to find that he has decimated his grandmother's living room instead. His grandmother, while shocked and bitter, does not punish Conor.

The doctors turn to a final treatment involving yew wood. Conor implores the Monster to heal his mother, only for the Monster to dismiss the matter as outside of his responsibility. At school, Harry proclaims that he will no longer bother Conor because he "no longer sees ". The Monster tells a story of an invisible man who did not want to be so. With the Monster's support, Conor angrily attacks Harry, hospitalizing him. To his astonishment, the headmistress refrains from punishing him as she comprehends his current home situation. When it becomes clear that his mother will die, Conor runs to the yew tree, where the Monster forces him to relive his nightmare, in which his mother dangles for her life. Conor finally tells his own tale, admitting that he had long suspected his mother would not survive and secretly hoped that she would die soon, which fills him with guilt. The Monster tells him that he did not truly want his mother to die, but simply to end his own suffering.

Conor's grandmother finds him asleep under the yew tree and drives him to the hospital, during which Conor reconciles with her. At the hospital, Conor embraces his mother one last time and as she is passing she glances at the Monster. She dies at seven minutes past midnight. Conor returns to his grandmother's house, where his mother's old room is refurbished for him. In the room, he finds his mother's old art book, which depicts the stories that were told to him by the Monster, and a drawing of his mother as a child with the Monster.

Cast

• Lewis MacDougall as Conor O'Malley
  • Max Golds as 5-year-old Conor
• Liam Neeson as the "Monster" (voice and motion capture), a giant humanoid yew tree.
  • Neeson also appears uncredited in a photograph as Connor's grandfather.
  • Tom Holland served as the stand-in for the Monster during one week of production.
• Sigourney Weaver as Mrs. Clayton (credited as "Grandma"), Conor’s strict grandmother who has a tense relationship with him.
• Felicity Jones as Elisabeth "Lizzie" Clayton (credited as "Mom"), Conor’s mother who is diagnosed with an unspecified terminal illness.
• Toby Kebbell as Liam O'Malley (credited as "Dad"), Conor’s father who is divorced from Lizzie and now lives in the United States.
• James Melville as Harry, a school bully who frequently targets Conor.
• Geraldine Chaplin as the head teacher of Conor’s school.

Production

Focus Features bought the rights to the book in March 2014. Patrick Ness, the book's author, served as the film's screenwriter, with J. A. Bayona hired as director. On 23 April 2014, Felicity Jones joined the film to play the boy's mother. On 8 May, Liam Neeson was cast to voice the Monster, and on 18 August, Sigourney Weaver joined to play the boy's grandmother. On August 19, Toby Kebbell was also cast in the film. On 3 September, author Ness tweeted that Lewis MacDougall had been set for one of the lead roles as the boy in the film. On 30 September, Geraldine Chaplin joined the cast.

Filming

Principal photography began on 30 September 2014, in Spain and Britain. On 9 October, the filming began on location in Preston, Lancashire, Rivington Pike (Chorley/Horwich), Blackpool Pleasure Beach, and Marsden, West Yorkshire

Liam Neeson, who voices the titular tree creature, was not on set throughout the shooting process, and completed his motion-capture performance during a two-week period beforehand, with MacDougall in the room. Actor Tom Holland, who worked with Bayona on The Impossible, worked on set as The Monster on a week when Neeson was absent.

Release

Originally scheduled for an October 2016 release, the film was delayed in order to avoid competition from Jack Reacher: Never Go Back, Boo! A Madea Halloween, Ouija: Origin of Evil, and Keeping Up with the Joneses. It was rescheduled for a limited roll out on 23 December 2016, followed by a wide release on 6 January 2017. The film was released in the United Kingdom on 1 January 2017, by Entertainment One and Lionsgate, and in India on 6 January 2017, by B4U Relativity.

Reception

Box office

A Monster Calls grossed $3.7 million in the United States and Canada and $43.5 million in other territories for a worldwide total of $47.2 million, against a production budget of $43 million.

In North America, the film had its wide release alongside the opening of Underworld: Blood Wars and the wide expansions of Hidden Figures and Lion, and was initially expected to gross around $10 million from 1,523 theaters over the weekend. However, after making just $659,000 on its first day, weekend projections were lowered to $2 million, which it ended up grossing, finishing 13th at the box office. In its second weekend of wide release it grossed $537,262 (a drop of 74.2%) and in its third week made just $19,080 (a drop of 96.4%) after being pulled from all but 42 theaters, one of the biggest third week theater drops in history.

Critical response

The aggregate site Rotten Tomatoes gives the film an approval rating of 86% based on 259 reviews, and an average rating of 7.58/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "A Monster Calls deftly balances dark themes and fantastical elements to deliver an engrossing and uncommonly moving entry in the crowded coming-of-age genre." At Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 76 out of 100, based on 40 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale.

Accolades

References

1. "A Monster Calls (12A)". British Board of Film Classification. September 23, 2016. Retrieved September 23, 2016.
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External links

• A Monster Calls at IMDb 
• A Monster Calls at the TCM Movie Database
• A Monster Calls at Metacritic
• A Monster Calls at Rotten Tomatoes
• Template:AllMovie title

• 2016 films
• 2010s drama films
• 2010s fantasy films
• Spanish films
• Spanish drama films
• Spanish fantasy films
• British films
• British drama films
• British fantasy films
• Dark fantasy films
• English-language films
• Films about bullying
• Films about death
• Films based on American novels
• Films based on British novels
• Films based on fantasy novels
• Films directed by J. A. Bayona
• Films using motion capture
• Participant Media films
• Films with live action and animation
• Giant monster films
• Films scored by Fernando Velázquez
• 2016 drama films
• Films produced by Álvaro Augustin
• Films produced by Ghislain Barrois
• Films with screenplays by Patrick Ness
• Magic realism films