Dev Patel pulls no punches in violent revenge flick

3 stars

This film stars Dev Patel, but make no mistake: this isn't like The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel or even Slumdog Millionaire. It's a vivid, well-made revenge movie with intelligence as well as action.

Monkey Man was a passion project for Patel - who also devised the story, co-wrote the script, co-produced and made his directorial debut - and he overcame a lot of obstacles (including COVID, financial problems and serious injuries) to complete the film. It was worth the effort, though with its frequent and often gruesome violence it won't appeal to everybody.

Patel wanted to make an action movie that was more than the typical

The film was shot in Indonesia but is set in Yatana, a fictitious Indian city. Kid (Patel) is making a hard, meagre living by donning a monkey mask every night and getting beaten up by other fighters in an underground fight club run by Tiger (Sharlto Copley), who pays him cash (more if he bleeds).

That mask isn't the only connection Kid has to a monkey. He remembers stories his mother told him of the Hindu monkey god Hanuman. The connection between Kid and Hanuman isn't made entirely clear to the uninitiated. Some subsequent reading clarified things - the virtuous Hanuman gathered an army of forest people to fight the demon king who abducted his wife.

At first, Kid's attempts to work his way up in a superficially swanky social club (it's about prostitutes and drugs) seem like a hustler's efforts to improve his lot in life: he goes from dishwasher to waiter to an assistant to the boss. But his real motive becomes clearer as the movie progresses. It's not his wife Kid seeks revenge for, nor a dog, like John Wick (though, perhaps in a nod to that movie, Kid keeps feeding a stray mutt). He's traumatised by the murder of his mother when he was young and he's ready to take revenge.

The fight scenes make use of a range of combat techniques and weapons and take place in a number of locations and, as mentioned, they're often grisly, so consider yourself warned.

While Patel is front and centre the whole time, there are a lot of characters and subplots and other elements to keep track of in this fast-paced movie (another writer on it was Scottish-Australian John Collee, whose credits include Boy Swallows Universe). Not being too familiar with the religious and political aspects of India, I was occasionally a little lost. But I certainly got more than the gist even though heavy accents sometimes made the English dialogue (there are also subtitled portions) a challenge.

The religious element added to the political and law-enforcement corruption made for another intriguing dimension to the story and there's a quieter, more spiritual interlude - taking place mostly in daylight - before the climax.

Despite the film's tight budget and production problems, it's what's on screen that matters. Monkey Man - which takes place mostly at night - looks really good: the production design is impressive, the cinematography varied and vivid. If you want a violent action movie with a bit more substance than usual, check this out.