THE MONSTER
(IL MOSTRO)
A film review by Steve Rhodes
Copyright 1996 Steve Rhodes
RATING (0 TO ****): **
THE MONSTER (IL MOSTRO) is an Italian sexual farce staring Roberto Benigni as Loris. Benigni is being hailed as Italy's Charlie Chaplin. To me THE MONSTER is like an old Jerry Lewis movie, but more bawdy. If you like heavy physical comedy with lots of slapstick humor and plenty of sight gags, then this is your show. It plays like a related series of "Saturday Night Live" skits, and accomplishes what it sets out to do.
Loris is a shop-window outfitter and gardener who is told by a friend that a woman at a party is a nymphomaniac. When he is not looking the woman leaves and another takes her place. When he tries to fondle the new woman, she runs away. Later she meets him when he has his gardening chain saw out, and he falls into her with his chain saw. She goes to the police and tells them about both attacks.
The police decide he is the serial killer they have been looking for, but they must get an undercover policewoman to get him to make a pass at her first before they can arrest him. Officer Jessica (Nicoletta Braschi) is the only one brave enough to volunteer. She goes to his apartment, gets him to agree to let her be his paying roommate, and stays naked most of the time to get him to make a pass, which he never does.
The movie has many subplots. In one Loris tries to learn Chinese to get a job at a Chinese Import/Export company. He does the Chinese with exaggerated Italian hand gestures and bizarre sing-sing Chinese intonations. In another subplot he keeps trying to evade his landlord who wants to sell the apartment Loris is renting. In the most disgusting subplot, the neighbor's 6 year old girl keeps killing cats and dumping them in his apartment. Later he retaliates by decapitating her favorite doll and then pulling all of its limbs off.
As an example of the humor from the trailer and one that my audience was in riotous laugher over, Loris bumps into a guy with a lit cigarette. The cigarette falls into Loris's pants and lands in his groin area. At first he does not notice it as he is ogling an attractive blonde. When he realizes he is in pain, he starts beating his crotch area furiously and finally grabs a one liter bottle of mineral water and sticks the neck down his pants to quench the fire. The woman behind me was in uncontrollable laughter at this point.
Most of the humor is of scenes that look sexual, but aren't. Typical of these are when Loris gets his coat caught in a mannequin he is moving. From a distance, Officer Jessica thinks he is having sex with the mannequin.
For such a risque show, there is nothing actually shown. All of the sequences that looks like sex, is stuff that is misinterpreted as sex by one of the other characters, and all of the nudity is not shown but is described by one of the other characters. The most that is shown is some not particularly revealing lingerie that Jessica wears.
I never laughed a single time in the entire show, and I saw every minute of it. Half of my audience was as silent as I was, and the other half could barely ever shut up. I do not like humor that relies solely on the physical. The script by Roberto Benigni and Vincenzo Cerami has little dialog of merit, and the director and star Roberto Benigni relied upon his skits to carry the film. I did not care for Benigni, but did like the work of Nicoletta Braschi. She was much more human. I should point out that the ending is the best part so hang in there until the last if you can.
THE MONSTER runs 1:52, which was too long and repetitive for me. It is in Italian with English subtitles. The film is not rated, but would probably get an R for all the explicit sexual references and language. There is no sex, nudity, or violence. The film would be fine for any teenager. Although I can not recommend the film and did not like it, I think it is well made if you like Jerry Lewis style comedies and so I give it **.
**** = One of the top few films of this or any year. A must see film. *** = Excellent show. Look for it. ** = Average movie. Kind of enjoyable. * = Poor show. Don't waste your money. 0 = One of the worst films of this or any year. Totally unbearable.
REVIEW WRITTEN ON: May 16, 1996
Opinions expressed are mine and not meant to reflect my employer's.
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