The Monkey's Mask (2001)

Dorothy Porter's book "The Monkey's Mask" was a groundbreaker on numerous levels. The text was a novel constructed from poetic verse ("is it a novel or a bloody long poem"? one commentator asked). Furthermore, Porter took a harboiled detective/ noir narrative and relocated it from the streets of NY or LA to seamy inner-city Sydney. Where once we had misogynist male gumshoes(i.e. Sam Spade), Porter gave us Jill Fitzpatrick, a female detective who was also - and proudly - a lesbian.So how does it translate to film? Very interestingly, indeed.The story (for those unfamiliar) entails Jill investigating the disappearance and subsequent murder of Mickey Norris, a young Uni student whose amateurish poetry is laced with sex and death. Jill's investigation leads her into Sydney's incestuous poetry scene, and particularly into the bed of Diana Maitland, Jill's duplicituous lecturer. And that's where trouble starts ...Susie Porter and Kelly McGillis are brilliant as Jill and Diana respectively. There is more emphasis given here to the sexual side of their relationship than there was in Porter's text, and some of the sex scenes do, alas, border on fetishistic.However, I was fascinated by the way their relationship was mediated by a whole range of other factors. There is class: Diana is an uber-wealthy city dweller who dines at Darling Harbour, while Jill is a working-class woman living in a dingy caravan on Sydney's exclusive North Shore. Also, Diana is entwined in two seedy 'scenes': the poetry world, and the world of English/cultural studies academia. The seamy, incestuous, inhumane side of academia has been explored in films as diverse as Hitchcock's 'Rope' (which TMM bears a resemblance to stylistically- and that also had homosexuality as a theme) to the 1970s horror film 'Bloodsuckers' (an appropriate title for Diana). In The Monkey's Mask, Diana talks down about her students (the women in her class love 'victim poetry', apparently). When Jill tells her of Mickey's gruesome murder, Diana is more excited over her latest academic grant!In support, Marton Csokas was brilliant as Diana's 'kept man' Nick. He reminded me of Vincent Price's 'kept man'/ playboy in the 1944 noir classic 'Laura'. Unfortunately, the rest of the supporting cast are under-used. As Jill's father, Chris Winwood is given little to do bar totter around with a whisky bottle. Then there is the talented Deborah Mailman, wasted in a thinly-sketched role as Jill's best friend (the most she is given to do is 'come onto' her friend during a time of grief, and that - as another commentator suggested - suggests a dubious link between lesbians and sexual voraciousness. This is a link that is made absolutely concrete in Diana's character, whose evil is - in the film - largely attributed to her sexual appetite).Also, the movie's conclusion was too neat and polished, given all the ambiguity and uncertainty that preceded it. The ending of Porter's book wasn't nearly as cut-and-dried.And what was the point of Jill's closing line: "Forget the bitch"? Porter didn't mention that. Was its inclusion to comfort the (conservative, hetero, etc) viewer that the dangerous dyke relationship is over, and we can all sleep nice and easy. Worrying stuff, indeed.Having said that,though, Lang's 'The Monkey's Mask' is an interesting contributionto the noir genre. Stylish and sensual, with some great chemistry between the leads, it is intelligent entertainment that deserves a look.

"The Monkey's Mask" tells of a young Aussie woman who is 99.9% lesbian and 0.1% private detective charged with finding the killer of a young woman poet. A naive flick which has some style but precious little reason to watch or keep watching and no reason to care about any of the characters, "TMM" is mostly pretentious hogwash with people behaving in ways people only behave when they're acting in a movie. The film is annoyingly divided into chapters, the characters are boring, poetry and lesbian themes don't ring true, and the whole flick is about as palatable as Spackle on a Saltine. Passable stuff not worth the time. (C-)

"The Monkey's Mask" knows the rules for a sex-and-crime detective adventure, involving a private eye (brand lonely-wolf), a mysterious femme fatale and a some irritating background information. It converts all those generic ingredients by involving a lesbian woman as the detective. The story is told from her perspective, making use of a voice-over now and then. The plot itself is divided up in chapters, the name of which we learn by inserts, while we see the eyes of protagonist Jill, watching. As to be expected from a Neo-Noir, the she-detective falls in love with the beautiful, but irritating female suspect. Works in creating suspense and overturning gender-cliches.

An interesting film, since there are only a few of this kind. It seems that is hard to convince the viewer in the beginning but as it runs it gets better. Bear in mind that K.McGillis is older than the woman she's impersonating, same stands for S.Porter. The story has some unclear points, but the director has managed to cover them. In a few words, a nice try - next time better luck (or script). It is not a 'MUST' film to see, but I do recommend it (at least is far and away more interesting from many others of its kind).