The film is a semi-fantastical drama dotted with splashy visual
effects, notably a Liam Neeson-voiced anthropomorphic tree that stalks
the young protagonist's dreams and subconscious.Director J.A. Bayona
("The Impossible") again ambitiously examines the mind- set of a boy
struggling with adult-size burdens, and he's got perfect material to
work from in the insightful script by source novelist Patrick Ness. But
MacDougall, fittingly, leaves the biggest mark. In a movie-going season
that has trained a spotlight on tamped-down emotion, he's impressively
stifled in his own right. "A Monster Calls" is a portrait of coping
that's both fascinating and heartbreaking. I go with 3.5/5 for Bayona directed fantasy yet emotional tale.