B. Monkey

Director Michael Radford made a surprising about-face from his international hit Il Postino to this grungy British romantic crime thriller. Asia Argento (Dario's daughter and costar of Abel Ferrara's New Rose Hotel) is the title character, a street criminal whose specialty is breaking and entering: "I can get into anywhere." Jared Harris (Richard's son and Andy Warhol in I Shot Andy Warhol) is a bookish, shy schoolteacher with a yen for jazz who becomes smitten with Argento's sexy wildcat. Argento brings a vitality to the supercharged street thief trying to break with her past, but stick-in-the-mud Harris is restrained to a fault and Radford never quite finds the right chemistry to make their union any more than curious. Rupert Everett costars as a smart-mouthed, sleepy-eyed ne'er-do-well whose drug habit puts him deep in debt, and Jonathan Rhys-Meyers is Argento's volatile partner, a jittery young punk on a hair trigger. Radford has more fun with the villains than his ostensible hero; the film bubbles when they're on screen and the movie's single heist scene is a short, sharp, energized shot in the arm to a slowing story. Only Harris sticks out as an impossibly resolute saint who's dedicated his life to a passionate sinner. The conclusion reverberates with echoes of Straw Dogs, as remade by a kinder, gentler filmmaker. --Sean Axmaker

Movie Details

Cast: Asia Argento, Jared Harris, Rupert Everett, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Juliet Wallace, Ian Hart, Tim Woodward, Bryan Pringle, Clare Higgins, Simone Bowkett, Marc Warren, Camilo Gallardo, Michael Carlin, Paul Ireland, Elizabeth Ash
MPAA Rating: R
Running time: 90 min
DVD Aspect Ratios: 1.85:1

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DVD Features:

• Color
• Closed-captioned
• Widescreen
• Dolby

International rating:

Europe: 18
Japan: R

DVD International release dates:
North America: Mar 21, 00

VHS International release dates:
North America: Jan 14, 03