The Monkey

The Monkey Movie Review Rating:

Star Cast: Theo James, Tatiana Maslany, and Colin O’Brien

Director: Osgood Perkins

What’s Good: Some of the jokes land every once in a while, and the film is short so it doesn’t overstay its welcome.

What’s Bad: The film struggles to know what to do when it comes to tone.

Loo Break: The first act is all background, and it could be shorter, so if you take a break during these first 30 minutes, you won’t miss much.

Watch or Not?: Watch only if you’re a Theo James or a Stephen King fan.

Language: English (with subtitles).

Available On: Theaters, VOD

Runtime: 98 Minutes.

User Rating:

Opening:

Stephen King has quite a long history in cinema, and he has basically been a part of it since he started publishing. Carrie, the first film adapted from one of his novels, became an instant horror classic. However, the quality of the adaptations is very inconsistent, and that means putting the name “Stephen King” on a poster does not ensure it’s quality. Osgood Perkins’ new film The Monkey falls exactly in the category of “this could have been better” like many others of King’s adaptations.

The Monkey Movie Review: Script Analysis

The Monkey is not a bad film—not at all. It can be quite entertaining, and its short runtime is actually quite nice, especially nowadays when so many movies try to go longer and longer without any meaningful thing to say to justify those runtimes. However, the short runtime of the film tells us, in this case, that there were not a lot of stories to be told, and so there are a couple of filler elements here and there to round up the time to 90 minutes.

First, the film has a very strange and disjointed structure, one that begins with our main characters, Hal and Bill, as children. It stays there for an extended flashback and then finishes up and makes the audience feel they have to get used to the adult versions of those characters. The jump never feels quite right, and it breaks the mood because you’re invested in the tale of them as children, but then you have to get invested in another story, making the film start twice, basically, and that feels like a big mistake if what you want is to keep the momentum going.

On the other hand, the film also avoids creating any sort of mythology surrounding the titular Monkey and instead treats it as if we were dealing with a force of nature, something that goes beyond any sort of examination and discussion. While this can be intriguing, it would be nice to have, at least a few threats from where to hold onto. This lack of context for the entire situation, on a supernatural level, feels like a cop-out, and when the devil is in the details, The Monkey feels empty.

There is also a huge issue that affects the tone of the film, and that is the humor. The film tries to balance horror and comedy on equal parts but fails because it never goes full in on either genre, and the result is jokes that don’t land and death scenes that lack shock value or any sort of impact. You can see the film trying to be something like Sam Raimi’s masterpiece Drag Me To Hell, but instead of pushing the boundaries of each genre, it stays right there, stagnant in the middle.

The Monkey Movie Review: Star Performance

In terms of characters, The Monkey is really lacking, as most of the characters are barely drawn, and they are mostly there for window dressing and to deliver a couple of nice jokes here and there. Other than that, the cast is wasted, especially when using actors like Tatiana Maslany, an incredibly talented performer who is barely in the film, and she shouldn’t be at all. Theo James, on the other hand, is the star of the film, and it becomes clear when the film reveals he will be playing twins.

James does well, playing twins, and in fact, he manages to do each of them in a distinctive way, which is a great accomplishment. It is just a shame that the material that was given to him doesn’t have the depth necessary to allow him to create something that could feel memorable. It is quite a fun performance, but nothing more.