This film focuses on a young boy, Conor, and his struggles to cope with his feelings in the face of his mother's terminal illness. Despite its 'monster' label and 12A certificate, this is emphatically not a kids movie. It is, in fact, a rather dark tale of emotional distress in the face of imminent death and the fantastic and frightening ways in which a young person responds to an appalling situation they can do nothing to avoid. Very young cinema-goers may well find it frightening and or incomprehensible.
Various reviewers refer to the need to 'take plenty of tissues'. But this is no mawkish, sentimental tear-jerker. Rather this emotionally powerful film derives much of its potency from the wholly unsentimental treatment of the story, so producing a hard-edged drama yet one that nonetheless does indeed bring the viewer to tears.
The acting from the main characters is uniformly superb but Lewis MacDougall (Conor) is exceptional, delivering what should be an award-winning performance. The fantasy sequences are also brilliantly rendered and one marvels at the artistry that has so successfully integrated sound, vision and story into one magnificent piece of cinema.
If you go to see this movie you will not come away smiling, but you will feel that the time spent watching it has been time well spent.
(Viewed at Screen 10, Odeon, Warrington, UK, 08 January 2017)
Various reviewers refer to the need to 'take plenty of tissues'. But this is no mawkish, sentimental tear-jerker. Rather this emotionally powerful film derives much of its potency from the wholly unsentimental treatment of the story, so producing a hard-edged drama yet one that nonetheless does indeed bring the viewer to tears.
The acting from the main characters is uniformly superb but Lewis MacDougall (Conor) is exceptional, delivering what should be an award-winning performance. The fantasy sequences are also brilliantly rendered and one marvels at the artistry that has so successfully integrated sound, vision and story into one magnificent piece of cinema.
If you go to see this movie you will not come away smiling, but you will feel that the time spent watching it has been time well spent.
(Viewed at Screen 10, Odeon, Warrington, UK, 08 January 2017)