Monkey Man (#539)


I saw MONKEY MAN today under unusual circumstances which I may or may not reveal at a future date.  It stars and is directed by Dev Patel, an actor of Indian descent whom I have seen before in Slumdog Millionaire and other films.  I think he is a first class actor, but he has really changed his image in this one from a charmer to a overly aggressive purveyor of mayhem. This film is about revenge and retribution and skillfully mixes such disparate elements as politics, religion, mysticism, fables and intense violence in surreal, psychedelic, symbolic and allegorical surroundings.  If this sounds like something more than you can handle, I hasten to add, it’s not.  But it is unique, and I came away wondering if I admired it or liked it and at this writing, I’m still not sure.  Patel plays an impoverished young man with a traumatic childhood who is a competitor in what appears to be an illegal, underground arena for no-holds-barred fights, wears a gorilla mask and is beaten to a pulp nightly.  His hands are also mangled.  He works his way into working in haunts where the elite gather and are served.  His path to revenge is accompanied by loud noises and interesting music, and the havoc he eventually wreaks is mind boggling, easily surpassing the feats of super heroes and Jason Statham and Liam Neeson combined.  It could well be the most violent movie I have ever seen, and it took two hours and 1 minute to sink in.  Critics and audiences admired it, with 88% and 83% respectively giving it a thumbs up.

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