VOD film review: The Monk (2011)
Review Overview
Vincent Cassel
8Plot
6David Farnor | On 18, Apr 2013
Director: Dominik Moll
Cast: Vincent Cassel, Joséphine Japy, Roxane Duran
Certificate:
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Vincen Cassel is Brother Ambrosio, a Capuchin monk in 17th century Madrid. Charismatic yet misogynistic, he was found as a babe and raised in the monastery. Today, he is devout and his emphatic sermons have earned him a huge celebrity following, including Antonia (Japy), who is moved to fainting. Sister Agnes (Duran), on the other hand, becomes a victim of Ambrosio’s piousness when the monk discovers that the nun is pregnant; he has her punished, but she swears revenge.
Then, the mysterious masked Valerio appears at the monastery, horribly scarred in a fire, begging to be taken on as a novice. But this new novice has odd abilities and a strange hold over Ambrosio. And through a series of coincidences, Ambrosio meets and becomes obsessed with Antonia.
Dominik Moll’s film treads heavily in gothic territory. The viewer is drawn into Ambrosio’s increasingly tangled web that’s leading him straight to hell – it might all feel rather predictable, but the storytelling is taut and doesn’t let up. The always-watchable Cassel carries the tale brilliantly, but the film feels somehow lacking, perhaps restricted by its source material (it’s based on Matthew Lewis’ novel of the same name). To its credit, though, The Monk remains serious, never dipping its toe into the absurd; it treads the same sort of territory as Black Death and The Name of the Rose and stands up well against each, even if it’s no Season of the Witch.
The Monk is available to watch online on Amazon Prime Video as part of a Prime membership or a £5.99 monthly subscription.