If you have seen either the Italian hit "Johnny Stecchino" or the American bomb "Son of the Pink Panther," or the Jim Jarmusch films "Down By Law" and "Night On Earth," you have already been introduced to Roberto Benigni, Italy's contemporary answer to Charlie Chaplin . . . or perhaps that should be Jim Carrey.
Benigni is a very talented physical comic, with a knack for the kind of athletic slapstick we don't often see in movies these days. But he's also terribly undisciplined, and his lack of restraint, coupled with his penchant for juvenile, sexually oriented antics, often undermine his best intentions.
That's especially true in Benigni's latest star turn, "The Monster," which he also co-wrote, co-produced and directed.
That "The Monster" intends to be a tasteless and wrong-headed exercise is signaled right off the top. Though the film is strictly lightweight comic fluff, the plot revolves around Benigni's being mistaken for a serial killer who has raped, mutilated and murdered 18 women in the past 12 years. In the opening sequence, a woman screams off-camera and we then see an elevator door trying to close, as the camera pans down to reveal a dead woman's leg in the way.
This is essentially a one-joke picture. Homicide detectives and a police psychiatrist (Michel Blanc) believe they've finally managed to get a bead on their killer, whom they have dubbed "The Monster." But, of course, they have actually pinpointed our hero, a hapless petty thief named Loris (Benigni).
So, a young policewoman named Jessica (the charming and comically game Nicoletta Braschi, Benigni's real-life wife) is assigned to get close to him and attempt to seduce him. Once he strikes, revealing his psychosexual-killer side, she is to arrest him.
Through a convoluted series of events, Jessica manages to move in with Loris, and she spends much of the movie desperately trying to seduce him — flaunting herself in every possible way. And though Loris has been established as lonely and sex-starved, for some reason he adamantly resists her advances.
As mentioned, Benigni can be clever, and some of his contrived bits of business here are quite amusing (especially a running gag about a neighbor who continually catches him crouching on the ground). But after about an hour, Benigni and his film have worn out their welcome — and there's still almost an hour to go.
Benigni may also be the worst male-chauvinist moviemaker at work today, considering all the women-as-sex-object images here (which also perpetuate a stereotype about Italian men).
The likelihood of Benigni getting a collaborator who will temper his worst instincts isn't very likely, however. For some reason, in Benigni's homeland, this movie was a monster hit — the biggest moneymaker in Italian movie history.
"The Monster" is not rated but would get an R for violence, sexual innuendo, profanity, vulgarity and drug abuse (the doctor giving his wife all sorts of pills and potions to calm her down).