I think of Monkeybone as a fun and wondrous tribute to the imagination. Most critics don't agree with me. I was going to list a bunch of quotes from rotten tomatoes (where only 19% of critics agree with me) but I think that a single one from Chuck Rudolph of Matinee magazine will suffice: "So dreadfully unfunny and unbearably shrill that watching it makes you feel like you've been trapped in Hell for eternity."
I didn't really have that reaction, but I have no way of knowing the reactions other non critic (normal) members of the audience because I don't know anyone else whose seen it. That's not surprising, because the movie was huge bomb when released, making back only $7 million of its $77 million budget. Ouch.
So Monkeybone is probably one of those films I shouldn't be trusted on, but I found it quite funny, exciting, and yes, original. It is flawed and has poor editing, but every time you think you know where it's going, believe me, you don't.
Because there are at least two big surprises in the film, there are spoilers ahead. Based on a graphic novel by Kaja Blackley, the picture is about a gloomy cartoonist named Stu (Brendan Fraiser). Stu has just hit big, with a major studio producing a cartoon version of his creation, Monkeybone, a talking monkey who does a lot of inappropriate things. Stu's girlfriend Julie (Bridget Fonda), a doctor at sleep clinic, encourages him to be happy, but he feels he's selling out. While driving home, Stu accidentally inflates a giant Monkeybone balloon someone left in his car which causes him to get into accident that puts him in a coma.
While unconscious he enters Downtown, where the souls everyone in the world who are in comas hang out until they either wake up or die. Stu is shocked to learn that a major celebrity in Downtown is the "real" Monkeybone (voiced by John Turturro) who has his own stand up comedy act where he makes fun of his creator. After finding out his sister (Megan Mullany) is planning to take him off life support, Stu tries to steal an exit pass from Death (Whoopi Goldberg) so he can wake up, but the pass is again stolen by the obnoxious and crude Monkeybone, who wakes up in Stu's body.
And that's just the first third of the movie. There is another major surprise towards the end, as Stu tires to get his body back. Doesn't this sound like a great idea for a movie? Just as weird as the plot are art direction of Downtown, which looks like something from recesses of H.P. Lovecraft's Id. The creatures that inhabit the world (some live action, some animated, like Monkeybone) are also far out, to say the least.
I do admit, the movie has flaws. It seems pretty clear that some major restructuring took place in the editing room, particularly towards the beginning, when major characters are introduced and then disappear. Whoopi Goldberg is an appealing personality, but she has trouble finding comedy roles where she can be something another than annoying, and in this picture she's like nails on a chalkboard.
A lot of people may object to the frantic, ADD pace of the film and find Monkeybone gratingly annoying instead of enduringly annoying, but I didn't. I appreciated the surreal nature of the whole thing, and how the movie seems to say that in order for us to be happy, we might need to bring out the Monkeybone in all of us. Normally, I would end this review complimenting this movie for being so different, so funny and so smart. But remember, I liked Freddy Got Fingered.
Monkeybone (2001)