The Monk (2013)
Average Rating: 5.8/10
Reviews Counted: 35
Fresh: 22 | Rotten: 13
Visually sharp but only occasionally gripping, The Monk is still watchable thanks in part to Vincent Cassel's charismatic performance.
Average Rating: 6.2/10
Critic Reviews: 11
Fresh: 6 | Rotten: 5
Visually sharp but only occasionally gripping, The Monk is still watchable thanks in part to Vincent Cassel's charismatic performance.
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Movie Info
A supernatural thriller adapted from Matthew G. Lewis' (now cult) 1796 gothic novel, THE MONK traces the corruption of a 16th Century, pious Capuchin Monk. Abandoned at birth at the gates of a Capuchin monastery in Madrid, Brother Ambrosio (Vincent Cassel), raised by the friars, grows up into a preacher admired far and wide for his fervor. Ambrosio is feared for his righteousness and believes he is immune from temptation - until the arrival of a mysterious apprentice undermines his convictions
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Cast
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Vincent Cassel
Ambrosio -
Déborah François
Valerio -
Joséphine Japy
Antonia -
Sergi López
The Debauchée -
Catherine Mouchet
Elvira -
Jordi Dauder
Father Miguel -
Geraldine Chaplin
Mother Superior -
Roxane Duran
Sister Agnès -
Frederic Noaille
Lorenzo -
Javivi
Brother Andrés -
Pierre-Felix Graviere
Brother Iago -
Martine Vandeville
Leonella -
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All Critics (35) | Top Critics (11) | Fresh (22) | Rotten (13)
A work whose elegant atmospherics ultimately overwhelm the story, even with the terrific Vincent Cassel in the title role.
Top CriticWhat repulsed Coleridge in the novel clearly amuses the French director Dominik Moll in his diverting if somewhat thin adaptation.
By the end, "The Monk" has revealed itself to be a too- predictable potboiler, served piping hot.
If only director Dominik Moll (who has clearly studied his Luis Buñuel) had not staged this bitter psychological horror story at half speed.
A beautiful-looking film that portends disaster. And disaster arrives, eventually. It just takes its time getting there.
Not bad for a robe-ripper along the lines of The Thorn Birds, but Diary of a Country Priest it ain't.
This is a fascinating character study about spirituality and religious responsibility that smartly doesn't take its more melodramatic elements very seriously.
I confess: I fast-forwarded through most of it.
Dominik Moll never addresses Matthew Gregory Lewis's original groundbreaking ideas in The Monk, nor does he rework the material for a contemporary audience.
Not to be mistaken for a serious treatment of religious fervor or clerical corruption, "The Monk" is instead a knowingly over-the-top bit of gothic nuttiness.
It's garish and crazy (and in French), so it's probably not for everyone. But I can't imagine anyone getting bored.
Moll's careful direction ensures a balance of the supernatural and the temporal - Ambrosio could either be seen as a victim of demonic forces within his own monastery or the sole architect of his moral downfall.
Vincent Cassel does his utmost to make his character intense and compelling, but negligible character development means he fails to hold our interest.
All talk, no action, The Monk looks good but is weighed down by the Catholic guilt it's trying to critique.
Studded with lovely painterly images, but ends up feeling cramped and stagey.
The movie broods like nobody's business, setting us up for a temptingly black slab of cassocks-off ecclesiastical depravity.
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March 8, 2013:
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Foreign Titles
- Der Mönch (DE)
- The Monk (Le moine) (UK)
