At first I was like "what the f... is this". It was weird and crazy and then holy moly! Crying! Completely saved the entire movie. A Monster Calls will forever be the best dealing-with-grief movie but this one is a damn fine one too.

If you've watched the trailer then you know that this is a well made movie, it's directed well, got some good acting and the effects are decent, so I'm not going to talk about those things, what I'm going to focus on is the story because that is what let me down with this movie. Spoilers ahead.

So the basic story is a young girl, Barbara, is dealing with a crisis at home and her way to deal with it is to retreat into a make believe fantasy world full of monsters, overcoming obstacles in that fantasy world help her deal with things in the real world.

As I watched this movie I was reminded of A Beautiful Mind with Russel Crowe because the young girl in this movie can't distinguish between reality and fantasy either. The premise of the movie is nothing new, we've had films like Bridge to Teribitha that were similar, but where the children's actions in that movie felt endearing in this movie Barbara's actions are worrying and disturbing, and this is my biggest gripe with the film, Barbara is a 13 or 14 year old girl who, among other things, scratches rune signs on the walls at school to protect people from monsters and carries a weapon in her bag to fight monsters with, and she's just too old to be behaving that way without raising some red flags, of course it's only the audience who gets to see most of this behavior so no one else in the film really gets to see just how deep she is living inside this fantasy she has created for herself. Once I realized that the monsters weren't real I spent the rest of the movie wondering if Barbara was suffering from a serious mental illness, she wasn't, but her behavior would have made more sense if it turned out that she was.

It's a movie that I recommend if your children watch it to sit down with them afterwards and talk about the best way to deal with problems, because the message from this movie, although rather simple, I can see being very confusing for children to understand from the muddled way it is handled and delivered to the audience.

This review is only for the most discerning of viewers and the reason is simple; this is a very well-intentioned film, competently made with some extremely fine performances, and if that's enough to please a person they will likely enjoy this sincere little effort. But it also aspires to deal with deep issues in an inventive fashion and while I'd not say a discerning viewer should NOT see the film, I am saying a little forewarning might help temper your disappointment.

It's the kind of film which, after you settle into it (and if you've conscientiously watched a lot of other movies) you realize it holds no surprises. You can predict the moment a character is introduced (the "bully" or the "new friend" etc) exactly how that's going to play out, almost beat-to-beat. You know the ending before you're anywhere close. There were absolutely no surprises in this film for me because it's very earnestness tipped its hand that it also wasn't going to risk telling me anything surprising or unpleasant. This is a movie that introduces anger into its characters but doesn't really want to deal with pain. That treats a damaged psyche and serious mental illness like something that can be "fixed" with a little sleep and a change of wardrobe. Oh, and hearing the right bit of wisdom at the right time.

This is a sweet little film that doesn't want to face reality or consequences even though that's often where the real depth and truths lie. That doesn't make it a bad film - it is not - it just prevents it from being a great one.