WHEN A MONSTER CALLS... anger needs to be released

How many times have we felt trapped? Like we can not see the light or the way through some situations or for some periods of time in our lives. Like stuck in the moment forever. And we are not enjoying this, on the contrary we are feeling miserable and every single day pass by feeling like an eternity just pulling us down, to a point where we lose ourselves, we lose all hope, we fight to survive but there is something inside us that pulls us back and keep us just standing in a moment where everything seems to move but us. Anger, sadness, anxiety, depression, all come together trying find a escape for what's happening inside us but also comes creativity as a form to express our thoughts and feelings. Some of the major creations in art had come for a rough path from it's artist. So if we mix all this elements we get a new fine piece of cinematography, titled "A Monster Calls" (2016), based on the YA novel of the same name, that won popularity due to it's theme, so appealing and profound that reached the hearts of an audience with it's imaginary about a young boy struggling with his mom's cancer, turning into a story that can relate to anyone's coming to age process while we struggle with feelings proper from such young age to the realization that growing up is not easy and life is not a fairy tale anymore, or maybe it never was.

Conor, is a 12 year old boy that not only missed his absent dad that left her mom once he moved to America and now has a new family, but now his entire world, based basically with and by his mom is collapsing, when she is diagnosed with cancer and all possible treatments seem to be failing. But she keeps hope going on because the least she wants for her son is more suffering that what he already had coming from a broken family. But he is not a child anymore so he can realize she is not getting better and on top of that he has to act like a grown up sometimes when she needs her medicine or gets sick. How can you deal with the fact of losing someone if the time while still is here seems like hell? And he is a teenager facing all the normal issues a teenager goes through as been bullied in school and having no friends but his imagination and his drawings, a talent gotten from his mom, that keeps his mind away from the cruel reality he is trapped in. Not to mention that his uptight and cold grandmother doesn't help much when she stops by to check on her daughter and trying to help with the chores only making him to close himself from the rest and hope for a better option for him.Because after all he is not a bad person, and he is doing his best to deal with all what's going on, just happens is too much to handle at once.

Until one day, a monster appears from the tree up in the hill behind his house to meet him, offering 3 tales in exchange of his story. Of course the young boy will refuse to this game as he has more important things to do and he only wants to be left alone, but the monster keeps showing up, until finally they go through the first story and then the second and finally a third one. But this tales make no sense to the boy, a prince that tries to save his town but kills her lover, and a witch that deserves forgiven, and an apothecary that denies help to others because can't forgive and a hero that is invisible to others, how all this can be of some help to a young boy struggling with life and a life that is losing all meaning, reason why all he needs and asks to this monster is to help his mom, so the way he can understand all this fairy tales is in a way that could help to save his mother. Specially coming from a tree that has lived for centuries and seems to have all the answers of life that he needs, just not delivering them in any easy way. But soon he will realize that the monster is not here for his mom and that she doesn't need help but it's all about him. He is the one who needs to be saved and has to realize that his life is about to change, because there are no happy endings like we used to believe in fairy tales, and no one is 100% good or evil, we all have different shades and agendas so we can't always judge by the cover, so we need to learn to forgive and stop judging and be able to express ourselves in order to make us present and connect with others.

Just by realizing that the ones who need help when losing a relative are ourselves is the first step to realize that monster that is hiding inside us and holding us from moving forward. And the only way to do so is by accepting the fact that life the way as we know is will be gone and even we don't like that idea, will happen, and we need to come to peace with our new reality. Losing a parent is something that no one want to confront even less someone at young age but we need to realize that are just looking for what is best for us and the less they want is to cause pain and hold us back from a future that is full of potential but as part of being young their words of wisdom are hard to understand and sometimes only fairy tales work as a way to deliver those messages and realize that all happens for a reason and life changes but we also need to be open for that change and let others in. How many time do we wonder what if?, in many situations when we were young or now as adults we would love to go back and change because we understand better what happen and need some closure. How can we cope with the loss of someone that is so close that represents our entire world and life after it just seems to end but at the same time all what we want and need is to be over one way or the other? How about the pain from the people who loves you and stays close to help you through illness? Who help them to deal with the pain and ease the situation?

We need to fight our own demons or monsters as we use to call them in order to move on, to let us set free, but the only way to approach that battle is by understanding ourselves and our circumstances so we can learn from them and know how to respond. The movie is so well done that you have to be a cold stone to not relate with this young boy journey and visually develops a very unique concept by telling stories through animated in, based on his own work in his drawings and the monster will serve the purpose to deliver the message and get the job done, and maybe that would be one of the very few flaws of the movie, as you never get the sense of to whom is this movie made for, the kids for whom the book what written for and trying to serve as a new contemporary dark fairy tale, closer to reality than to fairies, or to the grown ups looking for strong, deep story about coping with the loss of someone, specially your parents, an event that most everybody has to face at some point, so has been lost in translation, resulting in a poor box office even critics are loving it and the few audiences able to give it a chance have been touched by this magical story full of great performances, that never get over shadow by the special effects and the direction works perfectly to keep you entertain while touching the deeper fiber in your soul and the result is an experience that will take you a few minutes to recover after leaving the theater but will stick in your head and touch your heart, just as any of those moments when we feel that we have lost a very important part of your life. Take than anger and make some art from it because life is a monster that will call you to arms more than once.