Twenty-something Moll breaks free from her cramped, oppressive environment in a psychological thriller that makes the island of Jersey sparkle with pervasive menace.
Family is a prison for Mol. At 27, she still lives with her controlling mother and dependent father. She sings in her mother’s choir and has a crappy job as a tour bus guide. Which Monster Set on the island of Jersey, it gives an extra dimension to the sense of oppression evoked by its setting.
But first-time director Michael Pearce, who grew up there himself, also shows another side of the island: the turbulent Atlantic, the rugged landscape. This is Pascal Jersey—poacher, free-spirited thief, loner—who suddenly appears before Moll in a moment of rescue. He is everything her cultured family tries to protect her from, and so he is irresistible. Johnny Flynn presents him with a vision of a girl’s dream: sovereign, a little eccentric and difficult to understand. Is this just social awkwardness, or is he hiding something?
Because something is brewing on the island. A series of female murders keep people busy and the people around Moll look suspiciously at her new boyfriend: What kind of mysterious figure is this? While she finally dares to break away from her family and the narrow-minded village community with Pascal by her side, even the police begin to suspect him. The fact that this attracts Moll rather than worries him makes their relationship contradictory.
Jessie Buckley Makeup Monster Her first feature film, after previously working in theater and TV series. With her copper curls and distinctive face, she gives a strong form to the outer mollusk. Her piercing gaze oscillates between anger, tumult, thought, delirium, steeliness, and ecstasy. She awakens in a kind of delayed adulthood and throws herself into it with a reserve of unspent energy and pent-up anger. She will no longer allow her newly acquired freedom to be taken away.
The big question is where the monster of the title is hiding and the film is structured in such a way that you always think you can discover it somewhere else. Many of the characters seem to be hiding something; it’s no surprise, because in this conservative and tight-knit environment, motives are suspicious, and this usually keeps them under the surface, where they can fester. In the second half, things start to get out of hand, but at the same time the film becomes more like a traditional detective story. The final scene adds a big break in style. It makes for Monster An uneven but also interesting start.
