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Poetry isn't normally a creative area which gets film directors going. Like most of us, film makers probably read poetry at school and go on to forget that it even exists. The single exception at the moment is London-born director Samantha Lang (who went to Australia when 14), who has fashioned "The Monkey's Mask" from the poetry-novel by Dorothy Porter. The novel, hailed for capturing the sensibility of Raymond Chandler, has already been adapted for radio and TV.
Opting for naturalistic (rather than poetic) dialogue, Lang allows sexual matters to emerge from the tale of a poetry student who is soon found strangled. Jill (Susie Porter), a seemingly placid gumshoe, is hired by the girl's parents to nail the murderer, and she quickly begins an affair with poetry lecturer Diana (Kelly McGillis). As Lang picks away at the power and danger of infatuation and the link between sex and death, she also turns our received notions about poetry (and those who read and write it) on their head, allowing Jill to lift the lid on a rather seamy, literary-academic underworld.
While Jill questions those who might be able to help her, she also questions her own affair with Diana, and certainly Lang achieves an even spread of sexuality and thrills. Although Susie Porter suggests a huge amount with a simple stare (like the emptiness of her own life), there should really be fewer meaningful silences. The result is a film which moves forward at times and grinds to a halt at others. But for those who know Kelly McGillis only from "Witness" or "Top Gun", it's a welcome change to see her play glacial, manipulative, and hard.
