Written And Directed by Osgood Perkins
Lois: "Everybody dies. Some of us peacefully and in our sleep, and some of us... horribly. And that's life."
I was meaning to catch up with this one. After Longlegs, which I found a bit hit and miss, I was curious to see how Osgood Perkins would adapt this short story from Stephen King. It turned out, pretty well.
Now, what's this movie? Well, you've got Petey Shelburn (Adam Scott) trying to return a drum playing toy monkey to an antique shop. As a result, the shop owner's gutted with a harpoon and Petey abandoned his family.
The family being his wife, Lois (Tatiana Maslany) and twin sons, Bill and Hal (Theo James/Christian Convery) and it's a decision that had monumental damage on the family. The toy monkey loomed like a bad omen, both twins hatred for one another boiled over and a careless wish resulted in the death of their mother.
Cut to twenty five years later and you had the twins largely estranged from each other. On top of that, Hal also had an ex-wife (Laura Mennell), her annoying new boyfriend (Elijah Wood) and of course, Hal's son, Petey Jr (Colin O'Brien). Hal's lack of relationship with Petey Jr drove the second half of the movie.
It's a good shift too as Hal and Petey Jr found themselves drawn to the monkey thanks to Bill trying to trick Petey Jr into taking on the curse. Then there was Ricky (Rohan Campbell), who wanted the monkey for himself but came afoul of it's curse. Considering how annoying that character was, I found his comeuppance fitting.
The last showdown between Hal and Bill was the best bit of the movie. Two feuding brothers who finally hashed out their issues. Throughout the movie, Bill was largely a bully towards Hal but I did feel a bit bad for him. As for the ending, it just proved that you can't escape fate.
- Osgood Perkins has an acting role as Chip Zimmerman with Sarah Levy playing his wife, Ida. The latter being the twins aunt.
- The original version had the monkey playing the cymbals but here, it's replaced with a drum.
- Osgood Perkins changed a lot of the script to make the film funnier.
- Chronology: 1999 for the first half of the movie and 2024 for the second half. Bill and Hal are moved to Maine after their mother's death.
The Monkey was an enjoyable take on the short story in question with a great lead performance from Theo James, brilliant supporting roles for Tatiana Maslany, Christian Convery and Colin O'Brien. Add some genuinely funny scenes, gory stuff and nice character moments and you've got a great movie.
Rating: 7 out of 10
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