A monster calls (2016)

	Also Known As: Un monstruo viene a verme, Quelques minutes après minuit, Sieben Minuten nach Mitternacht
	Year of first release: 2016
	Director: J. A. Bayona
	Actors: Lewis MacDougall, Sigourney Weaver, Felicity Jones
	Country: E, USA
	Genre: SF, Adventure
	Conditions of visioning: 23.01.2017, Schauburg, OV Sneak Preview, English version without subtitle
Synopsis: The monster (voice of Liam Neeson) asks for the one thing Connor cannot bring himself to do. Tell the truth about what he feels for his mother. His mother (Jones) is deadly sick and his grandmother (Weaver) gives a lot of rules. The boy who feels very damaged, guilty and mostly angry. He struggles at school with bullies and at home with his mother's sickness.
Review: The story is a tale actually for children (refer to the illustrated book by Patrick Ness) and tells the story of how Connor learns to accept the coming death of his mother and how not to fear that death. The story is very touching. The story of the original author Siobhan Dowd is also dramatic, as she died of cancer before finishing this story and after having given the remaining story line.  The acting is neither expressive nor contained. It seems not to have been guided much and thus the mother and the child do not know exactly how to play. While Sigourney Weaver entered in her role pretty well.  The monster seems like other tree-monsters. The transitions of reality-like tree and animated-tree is really mastered. Connor really sleeps on branches that just have moved.  If you like to cry on the fate of children, this movie is for you. If you want you kid to think about the death of close ones, also.
Rating: 5 /10