Everyone loves an underdog, and the story of how action film Monkey Man fought to make it onto the big screen is almost as inspiring as the protagonist's on-screen journey.
The movie has been in the works for about eight years, driven by British Oscar-nominated actor Dev Patel, best known from 2008 breakout hit Slumdog Millionaire and 2016’s Lion. Putting his acting career somewhat on hold to focus on Monkey Man, he dreamt up the story, co-wrote the screenplay, cast himself in the lead role - and even went and directed the thing.
It's been a bumpy road, with Covid-19 throwing a major spanner in the works. Shooting in Indonesia, with borders shut down for long periods, they cast stuntmen from YouTube videos, with crew sometimes filling in as extras. Originally slated for a Netflix-only release, at one point it looked like the film was going to be binned as it languished in post-production - according to Patel, "Everything that could go wrong, did. We faced catastrophe every day."
To the rescue came Nope and Get Out director Jordan Peele who stepped up and reinvigorated the project, getting his production company and Universal behind it, believing it deserved a theatrical release.
While it is abundantly clear that this is a passion project for action movie aficionado Patel, who grew up glued to Bruce Lee films and Korean action cinema, perhaps his tunnel vision led to him being slightly blinkered in terms of issues with the film, not least a lack of character development and a complete over-reliance on action sequences.
Set in contemporary India, Patel stars as Kid, an anonymous young man working in an underground fight club, who dons a gorilla mask and allows himself to be pummelled night after night in return for meagre pay by his trickster boss.
After years of suppressing his anger, he sets out to exact revenge against a group of corrupt leaders, who burned his idyllic jungle hometown to the ground, seized their land and brutally and senselessly killed his mother in front of his eyes.
The decision to tell the story through action rather than dialogue is a bold one, but a choice that can leave the viewer with more questions than answers at points.
The film’s weakest beat comes in its muddled middle section where Kid, who after an epic police chase ends up on death’s door floating in a river, is taken in by a mysterious tribe of outsiders. There, he recovers both spiritually and physically, and trains to be a bombastic and relentless fighter, ready to take one last stab at avenging his mother’s brutal death.
What isn’t clear is that the tribe is known as the hijra, a group of non-binary and transgender people who are somewhat ostracised in Indian society. This ambiguity as to who the tribe is (only clarified after the fact by the film’s production notes), combined with fleeting shots of real-life footage of social conflict, protests and glimpses of fictional corrupt spiritual leader Baba Shakt - a wolf in sheep’s clothing - means it's never 100% clear who the film is fully having a go at – the rich? Religion? Politics? The police? The potential for a lasting message to international audiences who are generally unfamiliar with India's internal struggles is missed.
Despite this, Monkey Man’s signature is its incredible and visceral action and fight scenes which will dazzle and repulse in equal measure - credit must go to Patel and his team. Between the filthy underground fight club, the aforementioned rapid car chase, a vicious two-against-one in a lift and the final showdown, it’s hard to keep up - the momentum, sound and camera work is off the scale.
Patel put his blood, sweat and tears into this role – literally – he trained hard and only ate salmon and sweet potato for nine months to achieve the lean physique of Kid. He broke his hand, tore his shoulder and got an eye infection from dirty water on the floor of a bathroom where they were shooting a fight scene.
Sound, cinematography, make-up and costume are on point throughout and the fictional city of Yatana, which is based on Mumbai, is stunningly depicted as both colourful and vibrant for the elite, but dirty, gritty and tough for the have-nots – you can almost smell the city through the screen. The difference between the privileged rich and the slum poor, who sleep almost on top of each other at the sides of roads and under train tracks, is stark and truly unsettling.
There are a several cheesy, eyeroll-inducing moments throughout the film that very much detract from the it overall, edging it over the line into cringe territory.
It's a rip-roaring action film with quite a bit of heart - but sadly Monkey Man does not reach its full potential.
Monkey Man is in cinemas from 5 April.
