YOUR MONSTER |
★★☆☆☆
1 July 2024
A movie review of YOUR MONSTER.
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Director: Caroline Lindy.
Starring: Melissa Barrera, Tommy Dewey, Meghann Fahy, Edmund Donovan, Kayla Foster.
“I need time for me,” Jacob (Edmund Donovan)
What are the points being made by YOUR MONSTER? It feels aimless. It hints at competence thanks to the appeal of the two leads, but that sense evaporates as the credits roll and the story is digested. YOUR MONSTER is an amalgam of rom-com, theatre production flick, and revenge movie – and does none of these things satisfyingly. It squanders the talents of Melissa Barrera and Tommy Dewey, and wastes its storytelling opportunities. I kept wandering if minor tweaks could have salvaged the story, but it seems like a back-to-the-drawing-board project unfortunately.
Starring: Melissa Barrera, Tommy Dewey, Meghann Fahy, Edmund Donovan, Kayla Foster.
“I need time for me,” Jacob (Edmund Donovan)
What are the points being made by YOUR MONSTER? It feels aimless. It hints at competence thanks to the appeal of the two leads, but that sense evaporates as the credits roll and the story is digested. YOUR MONSTER is an amalgam of rom-com, theatre production flick, and revenge movie – and does none of these things satisfyingly. It squanders the talents of Melissa Barrera and Tommy Dewey, and wastes its storytelling opportunities. I kept wandering if minor tweaks could have salvaged the story, but it seems like a back-to-the-drawing-board project unfortunately.
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“Based on a true-ish story” states an opening title card. I’d really like to know which bit. We see Laura Franco (Melissa Barrera) in a hospital being dumped by her callous boyfriend, Jacob. It takes time to reveal why Laura is inpatient, though you know it’s bad. Why does the film wait to tell us? The break-up is handled with such coldness and emotional brutality. And when the cinemagoer finds out she was recovering from a cancer operation, the audience is anticipating Jacob’s comeuppance (this is a movie after all, and a mostly tired and formulaic rom-com at that). When the denouement comes it is so jarring and out of place that I left the auditorium shaking my hand in exasperation.
Laura is a musical theatre actor who was living with her Broadway writer-director boyfriend. She had been helping Jacob workshop his new play, inspired by her. Laura deserves credit for the production but does not get it. For a similar experience see based on true stories, HITCHCOCK [2012] and FOSSE/VERDON [2019]. Not only does Jacob end the relationship with Laura, he fires her from their project. What is bizarre is that surely should have been a career-ender for Jacob? Or is that the observation about how the world works for certain people?
Laura admits to being still attracted to him and acts on it. She overlooks/forgives such heinous behaviour. The movie does not explore why Laura does so. Perhaps because she has no family to fall back on? No siblings and no father, and her mother continually travels. Her best friend, Mazie (Kayla Foster), also an actor, is there for her, yet rarely sticks around long before dashing. In the post-Covid lockdown era, is YOUR MONSTER talking about the new depths of loneliness? (Probably not. The film does not seem clever enough.)
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From a certain perspective Laura has hit rock-bottom: no job, severe health issues, dreams in tatters, no boyfriend, little support network, and being kicked out of her apartment and living back in her mother’s house. However, her mother’s home is a huge abode in New York. Laura has no bills, and her mother has left her a $5000 cheque to tide her over. Why is the lead from a wealthy background? Why are so many storytellers divorced from reality? What does it say about the arts that so many working creatives seemingly come from well-off backgrounds? If Laura had been struggling for money, it would have made her decision to force herself into her play even more strong.
Laura’s return to the home of her youth is much to the chagrin of an unexpected housemate, her childhood nightmare, Monster (Tommy Dewey). He is real and not imagined. His look reminds of Vincent (Ron Perlman) from TV show BEAUTY AND THE BEAST [1987-1990], Joshua (Kevin Durand) in James Cameron’s DARK ANGEL [2000-2002] television series, La Bête (Vincent Cassel) from the French BEAUTY AND THE BEAST [2014], and Beast (Dan Stevens) from Disney’s BEAUTY AND THE BEAST [2017] live action remake. Basically, for me, Monster’s look does not feel very original (a bit lion-like). Good hair.
Monster is funny, “I’m a monster, but I’m not a monster.” He is not physically unattractive and you can see where the plot is heading a mile off. The set-ups and pay-offs do not surprise. (Was that Monster’s first time? He seems good at giving physical pleasure. Who else has Monster been with?!) The trite genre arc is present. The ending tries to subvert it, but the climax is undercooked. A plus for the story: there is another villain and our expectations are subverted.
If you want to watch movies about putting on a play, check out HAMLET 2 [2008], ME AND ORSON WELLES [2008], and THEATER CAMP [2023].
