It had been at least 15 years since I last saw this, and what an incredible film.
People are (right to) praise Anthony Hopkins, but I don't know if this movie works without Jodie Foster across from him (or the music, or the cinematography).
I'm sure someone has written a book about this movie (not the original novel - a book about the movie), and please point me toward it if you know of it.
What an incredibly fascinating (positive!) movie. One of the best portrayals of ego and self-loathing clashing with each other that I can remember seeing.
I adored this -- the performances were uniformly excellent, the small details carefully managed, deftly shot and directed. I imagine the ending sours a bunch of people (and I wanted more time with the characters, sure, but I think it worked well).
Mostly, I thought the metatextual stuff worked really well, both for comedic effect and for better understanding Monk. It served the film rather than feeling like clever winking.
I will admit I was sucked into the family melodrama:…
the band sounds good; the film is nothing to write home about
