Review: Monkey Man – Primal rage action

Directed by Dev Patel
Starring Dev Patel, Pitobash, Vipin Sharma, Sharlto Copley

7/10

The titular Monkey Man is the moniker of a young man, obscuring his face with a monkey mask, who gets in the ring for ungloved, unprotective, and normally very violent fights to a rowdy crowd. But the real fight for this man is avenging his mother’s death, and his anger and thirst for blood are harrowingly felt in this political, spiritual, and ultimately very violent thriller-actioner.

The anonymously named Kid (Dev Patel) is a quiet and unassuming young man, keen to get work in a restaurant run by Queenie (Ashwini Kalsekar). His intentions aren’t at all for employment, but to gain closeness to those who were responsible for the death of his mother and the entire destruction of his childhood village. During his journey of vengeance, he is taken under the wing of Alpha (Vipin Sharma), and his plan of vengeance becomes more than just personal, but done for the sake of the tormented group of villagers that live with him.

It’s clear that it’s the vision of Dev Patel’s directorial debut that’s what really makes the film, rather than his script (which he co-wrote with Paul Angunawela and John Collee). Monkey Man is more talkative early on, as it explains Kid’s traumatic backstory, his grieving over his family, and his plans to get revenge. Although it’s fun to see his very precise plans for how he infiltrates the areas of the higher-ups he has his sights on, this character doing this is very character-less, and the whole reason for his vengeance comes across as highly typical for a film like this, especially when the scenes of his burning childhood village keep repeating over and over.

But the film becomes more assured of itself as it goes on, and it basically becomes better as it gets less talky and more action-packed. Even the cinematography gets better, with the dialogue scenes featuring such blurry shallow close-ups filled with murky brown and orange colours, yet the action scenes have more precise choreography and clear lighting, making sure they’re not too obscure-looking.

The Indian setting may be the only thing that sets this film apart from other highly similar revenge thriller-actioners. Where it falters in thinking its motivation for the character’s angry vengeance is interesting and refreshing enough for this genre, it makes up for it with a handful of exciting action scenes, the climactic one in particular being a corker, especially with all the intensity of the training scenes leading up to it.

DAVID MORGAN-BROWN