Monster tells the story of a woman’s life over three time periods and the core relationships in her life; we first meet her as a troubled teen, and see the groundwork of her trauma, ultimately leading to a horrific action. We see her next in her twenties, getting married, but reckoning with the ongoing effects of that action, and then finally in her thirties, reconciled with what she did, reuniting with her friend.
The story itself is compelling, although the script’s highly linear structure does it a disservice, taking it from what could feel extremely challenging to the audience, to something almost (frustratingly) predictable. The characters have various levels of depth, and at times I questioned the need to meet some of the secondary characters, the script potentially being stronger if we had fewer outside forces distracting the story.
The direction was strong at times, but overall felt under-cooked; highly emotive moments resorted to shouting where there ought to have been texture and nuance.
This all together sounds like it was terrible; indeed it wasn’t, there were many redeeming moments however as a whole it simply did not hang together for me, either as a script or production.