Earlier this month, I was able to lose my press event virginity by attending a press junket for J.A. Bayona’s new film “A Monster Calls”, adapted from the novel of the same name by Daniel Ness. As I rode the subway uptown, I was beyond nervous, to say the least. I was worried that I wouldn’t know how to act around so many professionals. I’m just a baby journalist, after all. I’m barely old enough to qualify as an adult, and not yet old enough to legally drive a rental car. I’d be interviewing the film’s director, writer, and two of the actors (Lewis MacDougall and Liam Neeson). But if there was anything to encourage me to ignore my nerves, it’s this movie.
A Monster Calls celebrates the strength of childhood and the use of storytelling as a tool to guide us through even our darkest, dreariest lives. Through the use of some freaking COOL motion capture technology, Liam Neeson is transformed into a huge, storytelling tree-monster, that becomes somewhat of a spirit guide to Conor, as he faces bullies, a less-than-sympathetic grandmother (played by Sigourney Weaver), and the fact that his mother is struggling with cancer. But he isn’t scared. He faces sadness and despair and darkness and a HUGE TREE MONSTER, and he faces it head on.
“What I really admired about Conor is the way he reacts when he first sees the monster,” MacDougall says of his character. “He’s extremely defiant and isn’t afraid of him at all. That’s something I admire a lot.”
The film really looks at the way people view children. The older journalists I shared a table with talked about how stunned they were when the boy stood up to the Monster, seemingly shocked by the act of strength and independence by a twelve-year-old. Conor is the underdog of his own story, but only because none of the adults around him expect him to be able to cope with his life.
“Kids know more than we would like them to know, and saying that they shouldn’t is harmful. ‘Shouldn’t’ doesn’t help anybody. It ends the conversation and nothing has changed,” Ness told us when he was asked about the lessons of the film. “They just know more. And what Conor desperately needs is someone to acknowledge that he knows what’s going to happen. Just to acknowledge.”
As the junket continued on, I realized that all four of the artists shared similar views on children. Childhood doesn’t always mean innocence. Bayona describes this view as “treating childhood with respect,” which is possibly the most refreshing thing I’ve heard an adult say in regards to children in my eighteen years of life.
“Patrick Ness’ book reminded me of movies like ET,” Bayona told us, smiling (Note: this was not the first or last time ET was brought up during the event). “They talk about the complexities of the psychology of a kid, and then mix that with such great fantasy. I knew I wanted to do a film like that.”
As I heard the way Ness and Bayona talked about children and youth, my nerves melted away. Lewis MacDougall didn’t seem to be nervous when he walked in the room, and I wondered if that was something that came with working with these people, or facing a huge tree monster.
Oh yeah, the Monster. Liam Neeson was the first artist I talked with during the event, which, in itself, raised my nerves to astronomical heights. I found myself feeling childish as other journalists asked him about his serious roles in movies I had never seen, and I was burning to ask him about what it was like to be in Love Actually (my favorite movie). (Note: not asking him about it is most likely going to be one of my biggest regrets in this lifetime.)
But he summed up the film, the artists, and my experience as a baby journalist beautifully:
“It’s sort of cliché to say there are life lessons in the stories, but there are. There are no absolute solutions; they’re ongoing. It’s basically saying that life is complex, human beings are complex, and it’s never just black and white.”
A Monster Calls opens in theaters nationwide December 23, 2016.
