A Monster Calls is a 2016 dark fantasy drama film directed by J. A. Bayona and starring Lewis MacDougall, Sigourney Weaver, Felicity Jones, Toby Kebbell, and Liam Neeson. Featuring a screenplay adapted by Patrick Ness from his own 2011 novel of the same name, the film follows a boy grappling with his mother's terminal illness who is visited and told stories by a giant anthropomorphic yew tree.
The film rights to Ness' novel were acquired by Focus Features in March 2014, after which he was hired as screenwriter and Bayona signed on as director. Jones was cast that April, Fanny joined the film in May, and the rest of the main roles were cast by September. Principal photography began on 30 September, with filming taking place primarily in West Yorkshire, Derbyshire, and Lancashire in England, as well as in Bayona's native Spain.
After premiering on 10 September 2016 at the Toronto International Film Festival, the film was theatrically released on 7 October in Spain by Universal Pictures, on 1 January 2017 in the United Kingdom by Entertainment One, and five days later in the United States by Focus Features. It received positive reviews from critics, with praise for Bayona's direction, the acting, the visual effects, and the thematic content, but underperformed at the box office, grossing $47 million worldwide.
Contents
Plot
In rural England, 12-year-old Conor O'Malley has a close bond with his seriously ill mother. She asks his grandmother for help following her regular chemotherapy treatments, but Conor does not like his strict grandmother and is troubled by the plan for him to go live with her in the event of his mother's death, as his father lives in the United States and has a new wife and daughter.
At school, Conor 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, and he tries desperately to hold on to his mother to prevent her from plummeting to her death. Conor vents his emotions by drawing, a skill he learned from his mother.
One night, at exactly seven minutes past midnight, Conor sees the large yew tree next to the church transform into a gnarled Monster and approach his home. The Monster says it will tell Conor three stories during their next meetings, after which Conor must tell the Monster the truth of his nightmare.
In the Monster's first story, a prince flees from his step-grandmother, the supposedly-evil queen. He then kills his sleeping beloved and scapegoats the queen so the people turn against her and make him king, where he rules benevolently. The Monster, knowing the truth, takes the innocent queen and hides her far away.
As Conor's mother worsens, he moves in with his grandmother. His father comes for a visit and takes Conor to an amusement park. He invites Conor to come spend Christmas with him, but Conor is disappointed, as he had hoped his father would ask him to move to America.
That evening, Conor summons the Monster by making the hands of his grandmother's prized grandfather clock display 12:07. In the Monster's second story, a hard-hearted parson forbids an apothecary from extracting medicine from an old yew tree, only to change his mind when his own children become ill. The apothecary refuses to help him, and the Monster begins to destroy the parson's house as punishment for giving up on his beliefs. Conor enthusiastically joins in on the destruction, and really destroys his grandmother's sitting room in a fit of frustration. When she returns, his grandmother, while shocked and upset, does not punish Conor.
Cast
Lewis MacDougall as Conor O'Malley
Sigourney Weaver as Grandma, Conor's strict grandmother
Felicity Jones as Conor's mother, who is undergoing treatment for an unspecified terminal illness
Toby Kebbell as Conor's father, who is divorced from Conor's mother and now lives in the United States with his new wife and daughter
James Melville as Harry, a school bully who frequently targets Conor
Geraldine Chaplin as the principal at Conor's school
Liam Neeson as the Monster, a giant humanoid yew tree. Neeson provided the Monster's voice and motion capture performance, while Tom Holland served as the stand-in for the Monster on set. Additionally, Neeson appears in the film in a photograph as Conor's grandfather.
Production
Focus Features bought the rights to Patrick Ness' book in March 2014. Ness served as the film's screenwriter, with J. A. Bayona hired as director. Felicity Jones was cast on 23 April 2014, Liam Neeson was cast on 8 May, Sigourney Weaver was cast on 18 August, and Toby Kebbell was cast on 19 August. On 3 September, Ness tweeted that Lewis MacDougall had been cast in the lead role. Geraldine Chaplin joined the cast of the film on 30 September.
Filming
Principal photography began on 30 September 2014, and took place in Spain and Britain. On 9 October, filming began on location in Glossop, Preston, Lancashire (Ramsbottom), Rivington Pike (Chorley/Horwich), Blackpool Pleasure Beach, Colne Valley High School, Linthwaite, Huddersfield and Marsden, West Yorkshire.
Liam Neeson, who voices the film's titular tree creature, was not on set throughout the shooting process, having completed his motion-capture performance, with MacDougall in the room, during a two-week period beforehand. Actor Tom Holland, who had previously worked with Bayona on The Impossible (2012), worked on set as the stand-in for the Monster.
Release
In the United States, the film was originally scheduled for an October 2016 release, before being rescheduled for a limited rollout on 23 December 2016, followed by a wide release on 6 January 2017. It was released in the United Kingdom on 1 January 2017 by Entertainment One and Lionsgate, and in India on 6 January 2017 by Relativity B4U.
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, the film grossed $537,262 (a drop of 74.2%), and in its third week, it 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
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 86% of 266 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 7.6/10. The website's 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." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 76 out of 100 based on reviews from 40 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale.
