When <em>A Monster Calls</em>, Just Ignore It
J.A. Bayona’s tear-jerking fantasy film doesn’t come close to earning its inevitably devastating emotional climax.
Every Christmas season, there’s at least one film that rumbles into theaters with the sole purpose of yanking tears from its most cold-hearted viewers. Enter , a story about a young boy wrestling with his mother’s terminal illness. In a way, the film succeeds; it’s hard not to get choked up at a premise like that. But as the movie rumbled toward its inevitably devastating conclusion, the chief emotion I felt wasn’t sadness but annoyance at the dashed grander potential.
