• Director: J.A. Bayona
• With: Liam Neeson, Lewis McDougall, Sigourney Weaver, Felicity Jones, Toby Kebbell, James Melville, Geraldine Chaplin
• Music by: Fernando Velázquez
• Duration: 1h48
• Based upon the novel by Patrick Ness & Siobhan Dowd
• Studio: Focus Features (Lionsgate)
• Rating: 8,5/10

Synopsis:

The monster does not come walking often. This time it comes to Conor, and it asks for the one thing Conor cannot bring himself to do. Tell the truth. This is a very touching story about a boy who feels very damaged, guilty and mostly angry. He struggles at school with bullies, and pity looks from everyone, and at home with his mother’s sickness. Will Conor overcome his problems? Will everything be okay? Will Conor be able to speak the truth?

Review:

Get those boxes of tissues ready because you’ll need them while watching this!

Conor lives with his mother, somewhere in the British countryside. His room window looks out onto a church and a big yew tree. His mother has cancer and is really sick. Conor himself takes care of her and himself, with a little help from his grandma. At school he’s being bullied. So he flees into an imaginary world, where the yew tree turns into a monster. That monster comes back every night to tell him tree stories and it expects from him to tell a story of his own, the truth about his nightmare.

The nightmare is recurring and shows how the church and churchyard is crumbling and falling down into an abyss, together with Conor’s mother. The only thing he can do i hold onto her so she doesn’t drop down. That’s where the dream stops.

This is one of those movies that stays with you for such a very long time. I’ve waited too long to watch it, I realise now. Based upon the novel, I have not yet read but now I must find it as soon as possible, by Patrick Ness, this movie is so heartwrenching bút heartwarming at the same time. I couldn’t keep dry at the end, I’m telling you! That ending is so emotional!

I’m so glad I finally got to see this movie! Oh and the way Bayona (director of Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom & The Impossible) switches from live action to cartoon is amazing! That’s some real directing talent there! And the boy who plays Conor has got a bright future as an actor in front of him! That was some seriously good acting there! 👏