A Monster Calls (film)
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A Monster Calls is a Low Fantasy film based on the children's novel of the same name. Both were written by Patrick Ness. It was released in 2016 and starred Felicity Jones, Toby Kebbell, Lewis MacDougall, Sigourney Weaver, and Liam Neeson as the voice of the "Monster". A play, directed by Sally Cookson, was staged two years later and toured the UK in 2020.
Conor is a thirteen-year-old boy living with his mother in the UK. They are very close but his mother is terminally ill, and hasn't responded to a string of increasingly severe treatments. They are frequently visited by her mother, who helps in a physical sense but is too pushy and strict to bond with her grandson. Conor's father lives in the USA and is unsupportive.
Conor is bullied at school and becoming isolated from the other children. He has a recurring nightmare in which he walks with his mother in a churchyard near their house. A sink-hole opens suddenly and Conor's mother falls in. He manages to catch her hand but fails to hold her weight, and watches her face as she slips from his grasp and is lost.
One night, Conor is called to his window seven minutes after midnight by the Monster, who looks like a giant man made of tree branches. He claims to be the yew tree that grows in the nearby churchyard. The Monster tells Conor that he will visit him again and tell him three stories. He will then require one story from Conor.
The Monster's three stories feature previous times he "walked", leaving his position as an apparently normal tree to interfere with human affairs. He explains that yew trees have a long history of helping humans via folk medicine, and he chooses to walk when he senses that a person or community needs his help. However, none of the stories has a clear Aesop, unless it is that people are complicated.
After each story, Conor awakes and is left to wonder if the Monster is real. After the later visits he finds himself blamed for damage that he apparently did while dreaming about the monster, but the adults involved refrain from punishing him because they know he is distressed.
Eventually the monster confronts Conor and intimidates him into telling his own story, which is the truth he had never previously revealed. In return, the monster reveals what he can do to help.
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- A Form You Are Comfortable With: Inverted, the yew tree is the monster's favourite form and he has no qualms about scaring Conor with this form.
- Adult Fear: Conor's mother is worried she'll die while he's struggling to deal with adolescence.
- Arc Number: The monster always visits at 12:07, and is introduced by the camera focussing on a clock showing that time. Eventually we see why.
- Chaotic Good: The monster.
- Disappeared Dad: He did cross the Atlantic to visit his son, but refused to take him back and was generally too flaky to be much use.
- Enemy Mine: Inverted by Conor's grandmother. She points out that she and Conor are "not the most natural fit", but they can still bond over their mutual love for his mother.
- Exact Words: "If your mother can be healed, then the yew tree will do it."
- Good Is Not Nice: The monster.
- Not So Different: Conor's teacher does a gentle version, to his surprise.
- Or Was It a Dream?: At the end of the film, Connor finds some old pictures painted by his mother in the same style as was used to illustrate the monster's stories, including one of the monster, implying the artist had met him before. Then there's the significance of 12:07 (see Arc Number), which Conor wouldn't have known at first.
- Parting Words Regret: Conor's mother tries to avert this by telling him she understands how he feels, and he needn't worry if she dies and he can't find the right words. In the end his parting words are honest and appropriate, with a little help from the monster.
- Please Don't Leave Me: Unsurprisingly, Conor mentions a few times that he doesn't want his mother to die. When she's about to, that is.
- Relationship-Salvaging Disaster: Dealing with Conor's mother's illness eventually forces him and his grandmother to settle their differences.
- Take My Hand: Conor tries to save his mother this way in his dream.
- Tear Jerker: A child watches his mother battle an apparently terminal illness. Then there's his nightmare, the reveal about the nightmare, the monster's response, Conor's mother's advice, and his grandmother's... better stock up on tissues for this one.
- Your Mind Makes It Real: Zig Zagged.
- The main reason Conor realizes the monster isn't a dream is the destruction of his grandmother's living room, but his hands are bloody so it could have been him.
- When Conor snaps and lets the monster seriously hurt Harry, he sees the monster do it, but also feels himself do it. Other students later say they saw him do it.