SPANKING THE MONKEY
A film review by Ben Hoffman
Copyright 1994 Ben Hoffman
From the opening scenes between the son, Raymond Aibelli (Jeremy Davies), and his father, Tom (Benjamin Hendrickson), we feel an immediate empathy for Raymond and a strong distaste for Tom. Raymond, a college freshman, is met at the airport by his father who immediately (and all through the film) lays a guilt trip on his son. Raymond is expecting to do an internship during the summer as a start toward his ambition to be a doctor but his father tells him that the mother, Susan (Alberta Watson), has broken her leg in a fall and that as Tom has to go out of town on business, Raymond will have to take care of his mother. Forget about the internship.
Hendrickson is excellent. His manner and speech are so earnestly reasonable and whining that Raymond would have to be an ingrate to say "No."
Raymond caters to his mother as she lies helpless in bed. His every moment, almost, is at her beck and call. You can see he is trapped. Even when he goes to the bathroom to masturbate (spank the monkey), he has no peace, the dog sniffing and whining on the other side of the closed door. When he takes the dog for a walk he meets Toni (Carla Gallo), a high school senior who starts the ball rolling between them, only to later report him to her father, a psychiatrist, for his having been too rough.
Nothing goes well for Raymond. He does not take drugs, he is studious, yet everything seems to conspire against him ... including his youngish mother who has been neglected by her husband for too long. Things begin to happen as the intimacy of carrying her to the bathroom, helping her shower, massaging her toes and limbs, start to take on new meaning.
Superbly acted by all, with excellent dialogue by Writer/Director, David O Russell in his first feature film, make this a "must see" film.
3 Bytes 4 Bytes = Absolutely must see. 3 Bytes = Too good to be missed. 2 Bytes = So so. 1 Byte = Save your money.
ben.hoffman@bcsbbs.com
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