A lot of colleagues seem to have been under the impression—maybe because of the title combined with the fact that director J.A. Bayona made “The Orphanage”—that this is a straight-up genre film, a conventional monster movie. Boy, were they ever surprised by “A Monster Calls,” which is in fact a metaphorical allegory of childhood, illness, death, and grief. And an often very powerful film. Based on a novel by Patrick Ness, who also wrote the screenplay (the book itself was initially conceived as an idea by the late writer Siobhan Dowd, who is also credited in the film), “A Monster Calls” brings viewers into the ramshackle British household of young Conor and his unnamed... |